Shadows Awakening
by Ander Arias
Summary: Jade finds herself as the wielder of a great power, but said power comes with a price. Her only hope to return back to human before having to pay the ultimate price lies in one of her family's worst enemies, who plans to unleash an unspekable horror into the world. Dark Jade fic. Read and Review!
1. To Recover What Was Once Lost

_Project Dark Jade Presents:_

**Shadows Awakening**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Jackie Chan Adventures

**Special Thanks: **To Eduard Kassel, the patron saint of Dark Jade stories, whose awesome work inspired this story, as well as providing some really cool ideas. Also thanks to Zim'sMostLoyalServant, who betareaded this story and provided me with helpful tips to imrpove my writing.

**Chapter 1: To Recover What Once Was Lost.**

A black, sleek airplane flew over a vast desert, in a nation south of the Arabian Peninsula known as Oman. For the last several hours, the crew of the airplane, who sometimes peeked through the windows, saw nothing but a landscape of dunes of sand that never seemed to change except for the occasional oasis.

"Are we there yet? This is boring," Jade Chan moaned, "I would have brought a comic or something if I knew this trip was going to be so long."

"You shouldn't have come here in the first place," Jackie said in a slightly reprimanding tone, "There's a reason we left you with Tohru at Uncle's shop. This may be too dangerous!"

As usual, Jackie had tried futilely to leave Jade with Tohru at his uncle's shop, but once again his niece managed to sneak onto the plane before it took off.

"Tch. Come on Jackie, you have said that how many times? Like, a hundred? And I'm still alive and unharmed," Jade replied, "Plus, that old guy isn't a threat anymore. Uncle stripped him of his powers, remember."

The reason for the Chans' long journey was Daolon Wong. A couple weeks after being imprisoned, he somehow managed to break out of prison despite having no powers. Further investigation revealed that he had managed to craft a potion that, upon heating, turned into a sleeping gas, and strategically placed it inside one of the prison's air vents. In less than fifteen minutes, most guards and inmates were knocked out, and the old dark wizard made his escape. Other prisoners, such as the infamous Enforcers, who worked for the crime boss Valmont before working for Wong (if against their will) had also escaped.

While Wong wasn't declared a threat by Section 13 due to his now being depowered, the much more savvy Uncle knew better than to leave Wong free to do his bidding. Fortunately, even if Section 13 wasn't authorized to handle matters like Wong's recapture, Captain Black managed to get a plane for Jackie and Uncle to go after him.

"Daolon Wong must never be underestimated!" Uncle yelled at Jade, "He may be powerless now, but as his escape evidences, he still has a few tricks under his sleeve, and I am sure that he will try to find a way to recover his powers, or find a new source of magic. That must not happen!"

"Well, unless he wants to obtain the power to control sand, I don't know what he's doing here," Jade said as she looked at the vast desert again, "Are you sure your location spell is working?"

Floating in front of Uncle, there was a small, dried mud, glowing statue of a Chinese wizard with one arm extended forwards. The statue acted as some sort of compass that was aimed at Daolon Wong.

"When have my location spells ever failed!? When have _any_ of my spells ever failed!?" Uncle said, taking great offense to Jade's doubt in his abilities, "We're close."

"Good! I can't wait to kick that old geezer's ass!" Jade said as she struck a fighting pose.

"You're going to kick anyone's ass, and don't curse," Jackie chided, "Just stick to me at all times, and don't do anything reckless or dangerous. Uncle can take care of this."

Jackie thought that he should leave Jade on the plane, but he realized that it would be of no use. If he wanted Jade to be safe, he'd have to keep her as close to him as possible. Fortunately, Uncle would be able to easily defeat and capture Wong without breaking a sweat.

When Uncle said that Dalon Wong was near, the plane descended. They were now over rocky terrain, so the plane couldn't land, and the Chans had to parachute down. When they were done, they would have to go to a meeting point marked in Jackie's GPS, fire a flare gun, and wait for the Section 13 airplane to pick them and the runaway wizard up. Some agents offered to go as well, but Uncle rejected their help with his usual, "Magic must defeat magic!"

"Why? Wong doesn't have magic anymore, right?" Jade asked, but got no answer.

The three Chans landed safely on the rocky ground, and continued their journey on foot, following Uncle's magic statue. After an hour-long trek, the statue fell to the ground, and its glow vanished.

"So, about your spells never failing…" Jade said with a smug grin on her face.

"Uncle's spells never fail!" the old man repeated angrily, "If my spell stopped working, there must be some other magical forces interfering with it. Daolon Wong is near."

"Wong can't be the source of interference. He's powerless," Jackie said. His comment earned him a two-fingered slap from Uncle.

"Of course he's powerless! That's why he's looking for a new source of power here, which is interfering with my magic! One more thing! Despite all his knowledge of the dark arts, Daolon Wong is very reckless, so we don't know what kind of new evil he could potentially unleash. One more thing! Whatever he's looking for, it must be hidden, so keep your eyes open. One more thing! Give me your canteen, I drank mine half an hour ago!"

"Uncle, we have to ration our water, we don't know how much-"

"Uncle is old and dehydrates quickly! Do you want Uncle to die of dehydration? No? Then give Uncle your canteen!"

While the two adults kept talking (or more accurately, Uncle kept telling off his nephew about things that weren't his fault), Jade explored the surroundings until she noticed something strange.

It was a light, cold, air current.

And it came from a pile of rocks near her. Upon closing inspection, she found that the air came from a small line between two rocks. And if there was an air current coming from there, that meant that there had to be something under that pile of rocks!

"Uncle! Jackieeeeee!" Jade yelled.

Both men rushed to Jade.

"What's wrong, Jade? Did a scorpion sting you?" Jackie asked, worried.

"What? No! I just found something – there's a small breeze coming from these rocks. There must be something underground!"

Uncle adjusted his glasses, and took a look at the pile of rocks.

"Jade has found something. Come Jackie, remove these rocks so we can take a look what's under them."

"What? But those rocks are massive!" Jackie complained, "Can you at least help me?"

"Help you? You're young and strong, and Uncle is old and weak! Do you want Uncle to break his back? No? Then start removing these rocks!" Uncle demanded.

"Ugh, I wish Tohru was here," Jackie said as he lifted a heavy rock.

"Tch. This wouldn't be such a problem if we brought the Ox talisman, but you guys never want to take the talismans from the Section 13 vault," Jade said as he watched her uncle work.

After ten minutes of hard work (that were like ten hours for Jackie), there was a hole big enough for any of them to fit in. In fact, it appeared to be the entrance to some sort of underground chamber. Jackie turned on a flashlight, revealing a man-made tunnel.

"Okay, let's go," Jackie said, and he and the other two Chans entered the tunnel.

They kept walking, until they reached something akin to a stone door, carved with ancient glyphs and symbols.

"Jackie, do you know what this it?" Jade asked.

"Not exactly. But I think that these symbols were used in the ancient Persian Empire," Jackie said, "Which is odd, since the Persian Empire never invaded the Arabian Peninsula…"

"What does it say?" Uncle asked impatiently.

"It says… something about… genies? And… a great treasure… that is dangerous and… sorry, I don't know the rest," Jackie said in an apologetic tone. Still, he managed to translate enough for everybody to realize that whatever lied behind that door should be left alone.

"Daolon Wong wants whatever is here. We must take it and bring it to a safe place," Uncle said.

"Okay, so how do we open the door?" Jade asked.

Jackie kept inspecting the door, until he found a hidden button between the ancient inscriptions. He pressed the button, and the stone door slowly slid upwards, revealing a huge chamber, filled with pots, chests, and many inscriptions carved on the walls, as well as some paintings. At the other end of the chamber there was some small item on a pedestal, illuminated by a sunray.

Both Jackie and Uncle took a closer look at the inscriptions on the chamber's walls.

"I can't believe it…" Jackie said in amazement, "It really exists!"

"What is this place?" Uncle asked. He was the one usually telling others about the exotic and mystic places they visited, and was a bit pissed that his nephew had hijacked one of his roles.

"The Chamber of Wishes," Jackie said. He then cleared his throat, and remembered what little he knew about that place, "I read about this place when I was in college. A long time ago, there was a powerful Persian warlord named Kur-Asan. Kur-Asan formed a huge army and rebelled against his emperor, but his campaign ended in failure. However, Kur-Asan himself survived and fled into the desert, where he knew he wouldn't be pursued. He spent months traveling through the vast Arabian Desert, surviving by eating bugs and drinking the remaining water from dried oasis. Until one day, he stumbled on a cave. Said cave was the home of a djinn, or genie if you prefer. The genie granted Kur-Asan one wish-"

"One? I thought that genies granted three wishes," Jade interrupted, but upon noticing Jackie's frown, she sheepishly said, "Sorry, continue."

"Kur-Asan wished to be able to recover everything he had lost, and so, the genie crafted a magical ring. Said ring gave its bearer the power to recover everything lost. So Kur-Asan used the ring to recover everything he had lost: his fortune, his lands and possessions… and used them to restart his campaign, sinking the Persian Empire into an age of continuous civil war. When Kur-Asan finally died, they took the ring and hid it in a place called The Chamber of Wishes, hoping that such power would never again be used by black-hearted men like Kur-Asan."

"So that's what Daolon Wong is doing here. He wants to use the ring to recover his powers! AIYAH! What are we waiting for?! We must secure the ring!"

Before Uncle could take another step, Jackie stopped him.

"Uncle, wait! Don't you think that whoever left the ring here, also left some kind of security measure to stop anybody from taking it? We must be cautious. Plus, it's not even clear if Wong can use the ring to recover his lost power."

"And why are you so sure?"

"Because, if the legend is true, the ring can only give you physical, tangible items. If you wished to recover, say, your youth, freedom, somebody who died or the lost affection of a former lover, it wouldn't work."

"I could use that to recover all the stuff I lost in the past year, like my signed Melvin Moose card," Jade said.

"No! Nobody can use that ring! We must take it to Section 13 before it falls into the wrong hands!" Uncle stated.

Suddenly, an explosion threw the trio in different directions, leaving a cloud of smoke.

"You mean… _my_ hands?" a familiar voice said as a figure stepped out of the cloud of smoke and dust. To nobody's surprise, it was Daolon Wong.

Wong stood in front of them, wearing one of his menacing grins. He wasn't wearing his usual dark blue and black robes anymore, but another old robe that was probably brown in the past, but its current color was impossible to discern due to its deteriorated state and the number of patches and open seams. It certainly made him look more like a crazy hobo than a dangerous dark chi wizard.

"Wong!" Uncle exclaimed.

"Yes! Now step away while I claim that ring," Wong said in a menacing tone.

"Or else what, Anti-Uncle? You don't have powers anymore, and it's two martial arts masters and a chi wizard versus an old man," Jade said as she adopted a combat pose.

Wong laughed, "I may have be _temporarily_ depowered, but I still have some aces up my sleeve!"

The former dark chi wizard pulled a small vial of black liquid out of his robe and threw it at Uncle. Uncle was smart enough to dodge it. When the vial hit the ground, it exploded. Uncle avoided the explosion but was hit by the resulting shockwave. Wong then pulled another of his homemade explosives and threw it at Jackie. The archeologist managed to catch it before it could explode.

"No! Stop doing that! You might spring the traps!" Jackie shouted.

"Good idea," the dark wizard said with a wicked grin, and tossed two of his explosive potions at two random spots of the chamber.

If triggering a trap was what Wong was aiming for, he greatly succeeded. The whole place began to shake. Everybody tried to take cover from the debris falling from the ceiling. Soon, they noticed something emerging from the sandy floor. First was a massive, dark brown body. Then, at each side of the body emerged two long arms that ended in pincers that were connected to the main body, and finally, an equally long tail that ended in a stinger.

It was a scorpion the size of a bus.

"Bad day," Jackie said in horror.

The giant scorpion let out a spine chilling screech-like roar, and tried to smash, with one of its pincers, whatever was closer to it, which unfortunately for him was Jackie. However, the Chinese archeologist managed to avoid being crushed thanks to a well-timed jump. Still, the scorpion had targeted Jackie as its main prey, and kept attacking him with its deadly pincers.

"Uncle, some help over here?!" Jackie asked as he used all his agility to dodge the deadly blows.

"The scorpion is not important! Daolon Wong is! You have to stop him from getting the ring!" Uncle yelled.

"I'd do it if this bug wasn't trying to kill me!"

"Okay, okay, I get it! You don't have to get so pissy at Uncle!" the old man said.

Uncle pulled out his stuffed blowfish, and cast a green chi blast at the scorpion. It didn't appear to cause much harm. Still, he kept firing at the scorpion until he caught its attention. However, Uncle hadn't thought that far ahead.

"AIYAH!" Uncle yelled as he ran for his life, being mere inches from being impaled by the giant scorpion's stinger tail.

"Uncle!" Jackie called as he rushed to help him.

"Uncle is not important! Stop Wong!" Uncle demanded once more. He pointed to the other side of the chamber. Wong was quickly advancing towards the pedestal that held the ring.

"Don't worry uncles, I got it all under control!" Jade said in her usual boastful tone as she dashed towards the old dark wizard.

A little girl wasn't going to get in the way of him recovering his powers, Wong mentally declared. He reached under one of his sleeves, and pulled out another small vial of potion, though the color revealed that it wasn't another explosive. Wong threw the potion at Jade's feet, and upon breaking it wrapped Jade in a cloud of green gas. Jade stepped out of the green cloud, her hands covering her mouth and nose, but coughing and with teary eyes.

With Jackie and Uncle distracted by the chamber's guardian (and vice versa), and Jade fighting to breathe, nothing stood between Wong and his prize. He picked up the golden ring, took a moment to admire its form, and finally he placed it on his right ring finger.

"Yes, I can feel its power! With this ring I can recover my lost powers! Now, ring of Kur-Asan…" Wong began to say.

"Oh no, you don't!" Jade said.

The Chan girl somehow managed to resist the poisonous gas' noxious effects and tackle the old wizard. She tried with all her might to remove the ring from his finger before it was too late.

"…I want to recover my lost power!" Wong finished.

The ring glowed with a golden light, while Daolon Wong started to glow with a blue aura. He felt his lost powers coming back to him. Even his clothes changed from the rags he was wearing back to his usual attire. The sudden magic energy Wong was surrounded in blasted Jade away, slamming the girl against a wall.

"…Ouch," Was all what Jade said before blacking out.

The giant scorpion seemed to sense that somebody had touched the ring, because the moment Wong made his wish, it turned around, forgetting about Jackie and Uncle, and attacking the dark chi wizard.

Both Jackie and Uncle rushed to the unconscious Jade.

"Is she… is she okay?" Uncle asked in fear.

"Her heart's still beating, and she's breathing normally. But she may have a concussion," Jackie said. He knew that, sooner or later, something like this was bound to happen. Jade truly felt that she had some sort of guardian angel protecting her from harm, given her record of potentially dangerous situations from which she emerged unharmed, but that was nothing but incredible luck. And luck didn't last forever.

"Wait… look, she's moving," Uncle pointed out.

But Jade did something more than just move. Her body began to glow with a purple aura, and it levitated her from Jackie's arms, much to the archeologist's shock. For a second, her whole body flashed with a powerful, bright blue light, and during that second, Jade transformed into a new being. Her skin was now grayish blue. She had a new set of clothes – replacing her orange hoodie, white t-shirt, and blue jeans, was a purple sleeveless karate gi, knee-long pants of the same color, surrounding her waist was a thick, dark purple silk belt, and she was now wearing blue sandals instead of her usual red sneakers. After her quick transformation, she slowly descended until her feet touched the floor, standing still. She finally opened her eyes; they were red instead of brown.

"Hi Jackie," Jade said, cheerful as ever, "What happened? Did we beat Wong?"

Jackie and Uncle couldn't help but stare at her, dumbfounded. Jade had apparently gone back to being the dreaded Queen of the Shadowkhan, though this fact hadn't dawned on Jade yet.

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that?" Jade asked as she quirked an eyebrow.

"Jade? Do… do you… are you alright?" Jackie asked, barely out of his stupor.

"Other than a little headache, I'm fine, why do you ask?" Jade asked, still oblivious to what was going on. However, she did realize what was going on when she saw that her hands were blue, just as her arms, and probably the rest of her body. "AHHHH! What happened to me!?"

"I don't know! We have to do research, but not now! We have to stop Wong!" Uncle said.

For a brief moment, they had forgotten about Daolon Wong, who was busy fighting against the giant scorpion that guarded the chamber, trading dark chi blasts and pincer slams.

"Hehe, it looks like the scorpion's got that part covered," Jade said with a chuckle.

Wong kept firing energy beams at the scorpion, but its carapace was too thick, and his attacks barely caused a few cracks to appear on it.

"Ha! You're going to need more firepower!" Jade mocked.

However, that gave Wong an idea. His original powers weren't the only source of magic he could claim back with the ring. Placing some distance between himself and the giant arthropod, Wong raised the ring and said, "I want to recover Shendu's Talismans!"

The three Chans looked on in horror as a delighted Wong waited for his request to come true. Out of thin air, two talismans appeared in front of Wong, and landed in his left hand.

"Only Pig and Rooster? And the other ten?" Wong said in anger. Then he remembered that these two were the only talismans he had ever possessed. In any case, they would be enough to get rid of all the pests in the chamber. There would be time to get the other ten later.

The scorpion tried to impale the dark chi wizard with its stinger tail, but Wong used his heat vision to blast it into dust. The scorpion let out a screech-like howl of pain.

"Not so tough now, bug," Wong said with a grin of satisfaction. He looked upwards, and used his heat vision again, this time against the roof, causing several large rocks to fall on the scorpion, killing it, "Now, you're next!"

Jackie adopted a combat pose, and Uncle pulled out his blowfish.

"Jade, go and find a safe place," Jackie asked.

"Awwwww, but Jackie, you'll need me to defeat him!" Jade said, almost begging.

Jackie didn't have time to reply, since he had to dodge another of Wong's eye beams. Uncle cast a chi blast at Wong, but the dark wizard used his telekinesis to levitate some of the debris that fell from the ceiling moments ago to block the attack, then he hurled that same debris against Uncle. Fortunately, Jackie pushed him out the way, and saved Uncle from a long stay at a hospital.

Wong was about to resume the attack, but he was distracted by a high-pitched cry of "HIYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" followed by a strong kick to the old wizard's face that hurled him backwards.

"Don't forget about me, moron!" Jade said as she adopted a combat pose.

"Jade! I told you to stay away!" Jackie demanded.

"Sorry, but it looked that you needed some help," Jade replied smugly.

Wong tried to blast Jade with his heat vision, but Jade jumped just in time to avoid being carbonized. She did some impressive somersaults mid-air, and used the momentum to deliver another kick to the ugly wizard's face. However, Wong used the power of the Rooster to stop Jade mid-air.

"You're going to pay dearly for that audacity," Wong said in a threatening tone as his eyes burned with an orange glow.

Jade struggled with all her might to break free from Wong's telekinetic grip, but to no avail. However, one of her flailing arms suddenly shot a black-edged purple energy beam that blasted Wong in the chest and knocked him away.

Back on the floor, Jade looked at her hands in amazement, with a broad smile, and blinked. "Did I do that?"

The dark energy blast was enough to stop Wong's telekinesis, but it didn't harm the dark chi wizard much.

"I don't how you gained those powers, but it doesn't matter, since neither you nor your uncles will leave this chamber alive!" Wong threatened, though he now sounded more pissed than genuinely menacing.

"We'll see about that!" Jade said as she tried to cast another dark blast at him. The key word being "tried", since nothing came out of her hands. "Huh?"

Wong took advantage of Jade's momentary confusion, and used his telekinesis to lift her up and hurl her backwards. Fortunately, Jackie caught her before Wong could smash her against a wall.

"Phew. Thanks Jackie!"

"Jade, this is exactly why I told you to hide in a safe place!" Jackie said, a bit exasperated.

"But… didn't you see what I did before?"

"What I saw is that Wong almost slammed you against that wall."

"Ah, touché."

"Now please, stay here and let me and Uncle take care of Wong."

For once, Jade decided to hide and let the three men fight. But she couldn't help but think in what she did a moment ago. She had magic! She didn't know exactly how, but she'd worry about that later. Her uncles needed her help now.

She tried to cast another dark blast, to no success. How did she do it before? She remembered her body overflowing with energy, energy that she used to blast Wong. Although, her body was also overflowing with fear. Could it be that? Were strong emotions the key to unleash her amazing power? She decided to recall moments of anger – the Dark Hand almost turning Jackie into a statue, or when the Shendu-possessed-Valmont nearly killed Tohru with a fire blast, Daolon trying to kill Scruffy…

Yes, it was that feeling of power again. It was working! But those memories weren't strong enough. As much as she loved Jackie, Uncle and Tohru, memories of them in danger weren't enough; she needed something that would make her _really_ angry…

…And she remembered that time Ms. Hartman didn't want to pass Jade's math test with a 4.9 out of 10, claiming that a 4.9 was close to a 5 (the minimal score to pass) but not a 5. Jade felt her blood boil with anger.

Jackie, Uncle and Wong were absorbed in a fight in which neither of the sides seemed to have the upper hand. That is, until Jade decided to join the fight with a battle cry. The Chan girl came out of her hideout in an impressive leap. While she was above the three men, she placed her hands together, and a powerful dark energy beam came out of them, hitting Wong in the chest, blasting him back.

"Aaaaaargh!" Wong yelled.

"Ha! Score for Jade!" Jade cheered as she pumped her fist.

That surprise attack did damage Wong enough to decide he couldn't win this fight. For now it was better to retreat. As the old saying went, revenge is a dish best served cold.

"This isn't over Chans! I'll have my revenge!" Wong said, and then disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

"Yeah, we hear that a lot, you can ask Shendu!" Jade said back at the spot where he had been standing.

Feeling that the victory over the dark chi wizard was thanks to her, Jade turned at Jackie with a really bright smile and said, "Did you see that, Jackie? I totally kicked his ass! I bet that he'll think twice before messing with-"

But Jade didn't finish her sentence. Her body glowed in a bright blue light, turning her back to her previous, human self (and her clothes also changed back, too), and fainted. Worried once again, Jackie went to check his niece's condition.

"It seems she's alright," Jackie said after listening to her heartbeat and breathing, "But we must rush her to a hospital."

"I'll try to craft a healing potion until we can get her to a doctor," Uncle said.

Jackie carried the unconscious Jade in his arms, and he and his uncle left the now worthless Chamber of Wishes, not worrying once about Wong getting away with the ring of Kur-Asan. All his thoughts were on Jade, her wellbeing, and her mysterious transformation.


	2. Section 13 Under Siege

**Chapter 2: Section 13 under siege**

"We'll arrive in San Francisco in less than two hours," the Section 13 agent that was piloting the airplane informed them through a microphone.

Jackie sighed with relief. The return flight certainly felt much longer than it really was, mostly because both Chan men wanted to arrive as soon as possible for Jade's safety. The girl had been sleeping the whole flight. One of the Section 13 agents on the plane, who used to be a medical student before joining Interpol, checked her and assured her uncles that she was fine, but they knew better. For a brief moment, Jade reversed back to her Queen of the Shadowkhan persona. They saw her doing acrobatic leaps that would make Jackie himself jealous, as well as shooting dark chi blasts from her hands. Their only relief was that, despite all this, Jade still kept her personality intact. But the question was, for how long?

"Uncle, what are we going to do once we're back in San Francisco?" Jackie asked.

"It isn't obvious? We must do research!" the old man yelled, as if stating the obvious, "We must learn what happened to Jade and how to get her back to normal! Remember what happened the last time Jade was corrupted by the forces of evil! One more thing! We must also do some research on the ring of Kur-Asan! With that ring in his hands, Daolon Wong will be much, much, much more dangerous! One more thing! Make some tea, Uncle is thirsty!"

"I don't think there's tea here, Uncle."

"No tea? What kind of plane is this!?" The chi wizard yelled in anger.

"Shhhh! You're going to wake up-"

Uncle gave Jackie a two-finger slap.

"And don't tell me to shut up!" Uncle replied without lowering his voice.

Nearby, Jade stirred in her sleep, and began to mumble as she slowly woke up.

"…Jade," Jackie said, shaking his head. He'd preferred if his niece would have remained asleep until they were back in America, but couldn't help but feel happy to see that Jade seemed to be fine, "Jade? How are you feeling?"

"Ugh…" Jade said as she rubbed her eyes. She took little time to realize that her skin had recovered its normal color, "Jackie? What… what happened? I remembered that my skin was blue, and that I could shoot magic blasts from my hands… but it was a dream, right?"

"No, Jade. It wasn't a dream. You did all those things," Jackie said.

"Oh. What happened, then? Did Uncle use some antidote on me to change me back to normal like he did the last time?"

"No. You turned back to normal by yourself."

"Tch. That's weird… by the way, how did the mission go? Did we catch Wong?"

"No, the mission was a complete failure. Wong got the ring, restored his powers, and even two of the Talismans, and escaped," Jackie said, a bit saddened.

Jade noticed her uncle's somber mood, and decided that some cheering up was in order, "Oh, you shouldn't worry about Wong. That old moron may have got his powers back, but he has no idea how to use them!"

Uncle overheard this, and said, "Daolon Wong is the most powerful of dark chi wizards! We shouldn't underestimate him! And now less than ever!"

"Oh please – if Wong was such an awesome wizard, then tell me, why did he never turn you or Jackie into a child like he did that time with Valmont? Or how is that he never thought to summon that ogre until I was temporarily a giant? Or why did he never-"

"You know, Jade, you shouldn't say that aloud, or Wong may hear you and wise up," Jackie said with a chuckle.

"It's not just Wong. Shendu did plenty of stupid stuff too. That's why we always win. They may be more powerful, but we're smarter!" Jade said proudly, remembering that she also said that another time to Paco, "By the way Jackie… do you know how I became… blue?"

"I don't know, but Uncle thinks that since you were touching the ring when Wong wished his powers back, that may have affected you in some way. But like I say so many times, we must do research."

"Maybe it's gone. I felt a huge power inside me before, and now I can't."

"I hope you're right, Jade."

…

Meanwhile, at one of Daolon Wong's many hideouts, the dark chi wizard was giving the finishing touches to a certain item of his own invention.

"Ah, finished at last," the old man said, proudly.

Daolon Wong had just created a belt out of some metallic components. The belt was dark blue in color, and had twelve octagonal sockets. He placed his two talismans in two of them, perfectly fitting with a clicking sound.

"Perfect. Once the talismans are placed in the sockets, they become permanently attached to it thanks to the spells I've placed on it. And the belt has another spell that will prevent anybody from removing it from my body," Wong said as he put the belt around his waist.

That was a mere provisional solution to bind the talismans to himself until he found a way to absorb their power into his body. He already did that with the noble pig and noble rooster, but as he found out, he couldn't use the same trick with the talismans. Still, he knew it was possible, and he knew he could do it. After all, if a little girl with no training in the magic arts could absorb the powers of the talismans, then it couldn't be anything really hard or difficult.

The dark chi wizard thought that there was no need for such precautions, since if he lost the talismans he could wish them back with the ring like he did the first time, but then cast those thoughts away. He couldn't take anything for granted. After absorbing the power of the Pig and Rooster he thought nobody could take them away from him, until Shendu easily did.

The belt still had ten empty sockets, but that would change soon. Only one thing was left to be done. The old man raised his hand and yelled, "Gan, Ren, Chui! Serve your master once more!"

In a cloud of blue smoke, the three dark chi warriors appeared before him, not muttering a word. Daolon smiled; he had hoped to recover his original warriors who were sealed by the old good chi wizard's apprentice inside the Urn of Wei Cheing, not that trio of incompetent thugs that served as replacements. The ring had good taste.

"Prepare for battle, my warriors! Tonight we will attack Section 13 and claim the talismans for the forces of darkness!"

…

After getting back to Section 13, Jade was rushed to the medical ward, despite not having any kind of fatal injury (or any injury at all). The doctors who examined her didn't find anything. As usual, Uncle complained that the intervention of doctors was unnecessary, since Jade didn't suffer a physical injury but a magical one, and that "Magic must cure magic".

However, when Uncle and Tohru examined her, their results weren't any better. The old chi wizard knew that Jade had dark magic inside her, but none of his spells managed to reveal it.

"What do you think, sensei?" Torhu asked.

"I've tried everything I know, and still nothing," Uncle said, "Uncle is tired. Tomorrow we will do more research."

"Well, maybe it's nothing after all," Tohru concluded, "If all our tests haven't had any results, maybe Jade is fine…" Tohru said, and his statement earned him a two-finger slap.

"What kind of apprentice are you? It's obvious that the dark magic corrupting Jade won't show up until it's too late! That's why we have to be smarter!" Uncle yelled at his apprentice.

"Can I go to bed now?" Jade asked, "It's been a long day and I'm tired."

"Of course. But if you wake up and feel an irresistible impulse to kill us and take over the world, tell me!" Uncle said.

"It will be hard to remember that if I'm trying to suffocate you with a pillow," Jade said, rolling her eyes, and headed to her room.

"Come on, we must get some sleep. We'll have to do plenty of research these days…" Uncle said, as he also started walking away.

"Sensei, the exit is over there," Tohru mentioned, and got a two-finger slap in return.

"Don't you hear me when I speak? Daolon Wong has two talismans and will try to take the other ten! We must stay here and protect the talismans! He could attack Section 13 any moment!"

Tohru nodded without saying anything else and followed his master.

…

Several hours later, after midnight, Uncle's words turned out to be prophetic, since Daolon Wong appeared somewhere on Section 13.

The dark chi wizard felt a sensation of déjà vu, since a few months ago he broke into Section 13, ready to claim the talismans. However, nothing went as he had expected – his attempt at stealing the talismans was disrupted by the trio known as the "Enforcers", his dark chi warriors were sealed by that good wizard, and as the icing on the cake, Jackie Chan blew up the talismans. This time, however, would be different. It had to be.

The security was as inefficient as usual. Like the last time, they tried to stop Wong whenever he was spotted, but a simple wave of his hands and a short incantation was enough to incapacitate those hopeless idiots.

After a relatively quiet walk, Wong arrived at the Section 13 vault, where his prize waited to be claimed. He sensed some protecting wards on the door, probably placed by that good chi wizard in hopes of keeping Wong out of the chamber, but the old man's abilities were mere magician tricks compared to the power Wong commanded. He muttered another incantation, and shot a blue energy beam from his wand, blasting the door, as well as dispelling all the good magic on it. By doing so, he also triggered the Section 13 alarm, but that wouldn't be a trouble. Unopposed, the dark chi wizard entered in the vault.

There he was, again in front of the talismans. This time there would be no mistakes. He picked one talisman at random (turned out to be the Snake) and placed it on one of his belt's pockets, and paused, as if expecting somebody (probably one of those Chans) to stop him, but nothing happened. He picked a second talisman; this time it was the Monkey. He was about to pick a third talisman, when he was interrupted by an unexpected yet familiar voice.

"Do not dare to touch _my_ talismans."

Wong was momentarily surprised to hear Shendu's voice here. But his surprise turned into satisfaction when he saw the Fire Demon in statue form, trapped behind steel bars. The dark chi wizard cackled in joy.

"Oh, this is too good!" Wong said, smiling sinisterly, "I came here to get the other talismans, but I'm also going to get my revenge of you, traitorous lizard! Although, I can't think of anything that tops your actual situation. Prison life doesn't seem to treat you well."

"Daolon Wong. I see you got your powers back. How did such a talentless fool like you did it?" Shendu asked. The demon took no time to notice the golden glow on Daolon's right hand, "You found the Ring of Kur-Asan? _You_? Guess it is true what they say – all fools are lucky."

"I think that you're in no position to dish out insults!" Wong said angrily as he came close to Shendu's cell, "I'm about to become the most powerful wizard who ever existed, while you're nothing but a defenseless statue."

"No, Wong, you're wrong. You're just a fool toying with forces that escape your poor understanding. You're a fool who claims to work for the forces of evil and forgets the very essence of evil itself. But most importantly, you're a fool for thinking that I'm defenseless! SHADOWKHAN, ATTACK!"

In a blink of an eye, the dark chi wizard was surrounded by black-clad ninjas. One of them roundhouse kicked him in the face, knocking him back. Another one pressed the button that opened Shendu's cell. Other two lifted Wong and held him by his arms.

"Isn't it funny, Wong? You came here to claim my talismans for your purposes, yet you ended up being the key for my freedom. I should thank you, but it'd be more fun to kill you."

"How… how could you do that?" Wong asked, more shocked than actually angry for being fooled by Shendu again.

"The magic wards placed by Chan's uncle prevented me from summoning the Shadowkhan, but you dispelled them," the dragon statue explained.

"But… you don't have any talismans! You shouldn't have any power left!"

"Yes, I don't have any talismans. But there isn't any talisman to summon the Shadowkahn, is there?" Shendu asked in a mocking tone, "Don't worry Wong. To show you that I'm not ungrateful for helping me escape, you will be rewarded with the mercy of a quick death."

"AYAH!" a yell came from the vault's entrance, "It's worse than I thought! Wong also freed Shendu!"

Uncle and Tohru were at the entrance of the vault, watching the scenario, dumbfounded. Their entry distracted the Shadowkhan for a second, and that was all that Wong needed. Using his telekinesis, he pushed the two Shadowkhan holding him away, and disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

"GET THE TALISMANS!" Shendu roared.

"Tohru, get the talismans! I'll take care of the Shadowkhan!" Uncle yelled.

The Shadowkhan and Tohru rushed to get the Talismans. While doing so, Uncle pulled his stuffed lizard, accompanied by his trademark incantation, "Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao!"

Every time Uncle recited his incantation, one of two Shadowkhan disappeared, and some even dropped the talismans before they could deliver them to Shendu. Finally, Torhu managed to get the eight remaining talismans, and placed them in a bag. However, Shendu wasn't going to give up on the talismans so easily, and summoned more Shadowkhan.

"Kill them and bring me the talismans!" Shendu roared.

The chi wizard and his apprentice made their escape. Torhu carried Uncle over his shoulder, and used the Rabbit talisman to easily leave their ninja pursuers behind.

"Sensei, what are we going to do?" Torhu asked.

"Uncle will place the protective wards on the vault again so Shendu can't summon Shadowkahn! Meanwhile, you have to keep the talismans safe!"

"Yes, sensei," Torhu said with a nod as he left with the talismans.

…

Meanwhile, in another section of Section 13, Daolon Wong prepared for his immediate counterattack.

"Gan, Ren, Chui!" Wong said, and his three dark chi warriors appeared before him, "Go and get the remaining talismans! Look for Shendu and the good chi wizard! GO!"

The three orange skinned inhuman monsters leaped away, ready to carry out their master's orders.

…

Soon Section 13 became a battlefield where its human defenders fought against the hordes of demonic ninjas. The sound of the fight combined with the loud noise of the alarm was more than enough to wake everybody up. Jackie and Jade were no exception, and after quickly getting changed, they rushed out of their bedrooms to see what was going on.

"Shadowkhan? Here?" Jackie asked in horror, "I thought Uncle prevented Shendu from summoning them!"

"Well, guess that Uncle's spells do fail after all," Jade said, though she didn't grin nor acted smugly like other times, given their current situation. However, she struck a combat pose, "Anyway, they came to the wrong underground base. Let's go and kick their ninja asses!"

However, Jackie had other plans in mind.

"No way. I have to take you out of here," Jackie said as he grabbed Jade by the arm and rushed to the exit.

"Aw…" Jade said as her uncle practically dragged her away.

Jackie was hoping that he could take Jade out of Section 13 without running into any demonic ninja. All his hopes went out of the window when they entered a room full of them.

"Jade, stay here!" Jackie said as the Shadowkhan quickly surrounded him. Jackie counted eight of them. He wasn't sure if he could beat all of them by himself. Still, he had to do it; his niece's life was at stake.

A storm of punches and kicks rained over Jackie, who skillfully blocked and dodged all that his shadowy enemies threw at him. However, that's all that Jackie could do, since the constant tide of attacks forced him to keep a defensive position, and was unable to counterattack. Still, Jackie managed to see a spot between two Shadowkhan that he used to slip past them. Before they could turn around, Jackie delivered a low kick that made of two of the ninjas lose their balance and fall on another two. Two other ninjas pulled out several shuriken and threw them at Jackie. Fortunately for him, Jackie saw some pipes near the ceiling, and with a well-timed jump, he avoided the deadly steel stars and grabbed the pipes.

"Jackie, use this!" Jade yelled as she threw him a fire extinguisher.

Jackie caught the extinguisher as he landed on the floor, and used it as a weapon to smash the Shadowkhan, as well as a shield to block the ninjas' hits.

For once, Jade had listened to Jackie and didn't involve herself in the fight. With a big smile, she was watching her uncle fighting the group of magic ninjas, awestruck as always that her uncle did something like this. However, that smile soon turned into a face of horror when two Shadowkhan noticed Jade and advanced towards her with predictable intentions.

Casting her fear aside, Jade charged against the black-clad ninjas, ready to deliver a flying kick. However, her kick was easily blocked by one of the Shadowkhan, who used Jade's own momentum to hurl her against a wall. The other ninja unsheathed a katana.

"JACKIEEEEEEEEEEE!" Jade screamed at the top of her lungs.

Jackie elbowed the Shadowkhan he was fighting with, and turned around to see Jade cornered by two ninjas.

"JADE!" The archeologist yelled as he tried to clear a path towards his niece.

Suddenly, a powerful wind picked up, despite being indoors. Jade levitated in mid air, and for a second her body flashed with a blinding blue light, similar to how she did in the Chamber of Wishes, and released a shockwave that pushed the ninja attackers back. And, like what happened in that place, Jade turned into a Shadowkhan.

"Jade…?" Jackie asked, dumbfounded.

"Wow…" Jade whispered as she took a look at herself. Then, she rested her eyes on the Shadowkhan, who were staring back at her as if deciding what to do, and said with a grin, "Time for payback!"

Jade shot across the hallway at an amazing speed, and roundhouse kicked a Shadowkhan, which immediately disappeared. The rest of the Shadowkhan reacted and continued the fight. But with Jackie and Jade fighting together, the demonic ninjas were easily defeated.

"Oh boy, that felt so great!" Jade cheered, pumping a fist, "Such agility! And such strength!"

"Oh no, it happened just as Uncle feared! You're turning into a Shadowkhan!" Jackie said, worried.

"You mean this?" Jade said as she pointed at herself, "Don't worry, look!"

In another flash of light, Jade turned back into a human.

"See? I can control it!" she said, and turned back into Shadowkhan.

"This is too strange…" Jackie said as he scratched his head in confusion, "Anyway, turn yourself human again, and get out of here, this is too dangerous."

"Are you kidding me? Now I can wipe the floor with those ninjas. Oh, I know, let's make a competition! If I win, you buy me the new Game Station! Ready? Go!" Jade said as she rushed to the core of Section 13, in search for some more Shadowkhan.

"Jade, wait!" Jackie said as he ran after her.

Jade found what she was looking for in no time – hordes of Shadowkhan fighting Section 13 agents. It was about time to show those redshirts how it was done!

…

Captain Black was fighting the elusive magic ninjas along a few of his agents, firing left and right with his regulation gun, watching the Shadowkhan dissolve into nothingness every time he or one of his men placed a bullet in their bodies.

"Sir, we're getting reinforcement requests from levels two and three, what are your orders?" One of the Section 13 agents, who was holding a walkie-talkie, asked.

"We're getting pretty screwed up over here, tell them to resist until we can lend them any help!" Black said as he shot a Shadowkhan leaping at him, "What do we know about the other levels?"

"They're also having trouble in the R&D floor. The arsenal are doing better, maybe they can lend some help, " Another agent replied.

"Tell them to get here as fast as possible. And I want to know who invited these guys! The Shadowkhan don't work on their own, they must have a leader!"

While listening to his agents' reports, Black was distracted for a moment that was used by a Shadowkhan to quickly disarm Black. The Captain of Section 13 tried to take on the Shadowkahn with his bare fist, but he was aided by other two ninjas who quickly overpowered Black and separated him from the other agents, who tried to help their leader, but were attacked by more ninjas.

Deciding that his fists wouldn't be enough, Black pulled out an electric baton from his coat. A katana wielding Shadowkhan charged at Black, who swiftly evaded the swing, and hit the ninja with the baton. The electric shock wasn't enough to destroy him, but it paralyzed him long enough for Black to deliver a swift kick to his chest that hurled him against a wall, causing the ninja to disappear.

The two remaining Shadowkhan, unarmed, decided to attack together, forcing Black to adopt a more defensive combat style. He managed to electrocute one of the ninjas, but the other kicked the electric baton out of Black's hands, and giving him a hard punch to the nose. Black wobbled backwards as he held his nose in pain. The next thing Black saw was a purple blur and a high pitched battle cry, and the Shadowkhan dissolving into nothingness. When his brain processed what his eyes had seen, he found himself in front of a blue-skinned Jade, and realized that he may as well be in front of the reason why Section 13 was under attack.

"Whoa, Nellie!" Black said as he stumbled backwards.

"Relax, baldy. I may be blue again, but I'm on your side this time," Jade said with a casual, yet mocking tone.

"Baldy?" Black replied, now a bit more angry than surprised.

The Shadowkhan Black had incapacitated moments ago with his baton had recovered and was about to attack the duo with a flying kick. However, Jade managed to grab him by his ankle, spun him around several times, and threw him at the opposite wall.

"This is too easy. Say, did you find out who brought the ninjas here?" Jade asked Black.

"We're on it. Jade, what happened to you? And where's Jackie?"

"Both Jackie and I are fine. I thought that he was behind me, but guess that he couldn't catch up. More fun for me then."

"Jade, even if I'm grateful for helping me about those Shadowkhan, I can't allow you to continue fighting," Black declared, "Come on, I'll take you to Jackie."

"And I'm not asking for your permission. And yes, you should be grateful that I'm cleaning your place of these ninja rats," Jade said before leaping away, looking for more enemies to beat.

"Jade, wait!" Black said as he tried to grab Jade, but the girl was faster than him.

…

With the power of the Rabbit talisman, Tohru rushed through the hallways of Section 13. He thought that he'd be outside by now, but he was forced to take some detours to avoid fights. He felt like a cowardly rat for not helping the Section 13 agents against the Shadowkhan, but Uncle's instructions were precise – to take the talismans out of Section 13 as fast as possible. And he knew from experience that it was very easy to lose a talisman in a fight.

Unfortunately for Tohru, he was running so fast that he didn't see the well calculated Bo staff thrown at his legs, which made him trip and drop both the Rabbit talisman he was holding and the bag with the other four. Not to mention the fact that his head slammed against a wall due to his momentum.

"Ughhhh…" Tohru moaned as he stood up, and rubbed his head. In front of him was Gan, the dark chi warrior with the ponytail.

Gan extended his hand, and his Bo staff returned to him. Immediately, he dashed to grab the Rabbit talisman. In response, Tohru also jumped towards the talisman, but rather than grabbing it like Gan was about to do, he tackled Gan, then lifted the dark chi warrior over his head, and threw him against a wall. Free of his enemy, Tohru grabbed the Rabbit talisman and put it inside the bag with the others. Unfortunately for the wizard apprentice, Gan was far from defeated and wouldn't stop until he got the talismans or was destroyed; whatever came first.

Gan leaped at Tohru, ready to deliver a flying kick. The Japanese giant tried to grab Gan midair, but he was too slow and Gan kicked him backwards, making him drop the talisman bag. Still, the kick didn't harm Tohru much thanks to his massive physical strength. Tohru tried to punch the dark chi warrior, but once again was too slow and Gan dodged the attack, and smacked Tohru in the face with his staff, causing the Japanese giant to fall down like an old tree, causing a small tremor. Gan jumped into the air, ready to deliver the killing blow. However, Tohru was already expecting this, and this time managed to grab Gan's staff before the orange humanoid could hit him, and threw the staff and its wielder against another wall. Upon impact, Gan turned into blue smoke.

"Finally…" Tohru said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead, and picked up the talisman bag from the floor. However, when he was about to resume his escape, many Shadowkhan appeared before him, forming a circle around him.

The Shadowkhan jumped at Tohru at once, dog-piling him. Tohru shook them off as best he could. They were definitely weaker than the dark chi warriors, but had the advantage of numbers.

"Jade!?" a new voice called out, "Jade, where are you?"

Tohru recognized Jackie's voice instantly, and was filled with hope to have some reinforcements.

"Jackie! I need some help over here!" Tohru shouted.

"Tohru?" Jackie asked. Upon seeing Uncle's apprentice in trouble, Jackie forgot about Jade for a moment, and rushed to help Tohru.

Jackie helped Tohru to get rid of the Shadowkhan, which proceeded to surround the duo. But like it happened before, fighting with somebody else covering your back was much easier, especially if the person covering you was the huge powerhouse known as Tohru.

While trading kicks, punches and blade swings, the two men noticed that the Shadowkhan focused more on Tohru, while trying to separate Jackie from him. Remembering the treasure he was carrying, the Japanese giant rummaged through the bag and pulled a talisman at random. It was the Dragon; Tohru thanked whatever deity was listening it wasn't something useless like the Tiger or Sheep.

Armed with literal firepower, Tohru sent the dark ninjas back to whatever hellish place they had come from.

"Thanks, Tohru. Do you know what's going on? Have you seen Jade?" The archeologist asked.

"Daolon Wong is here. He tried to steal the talismans. Sensei had placed a protective spell in the vault against the dark forces, but Wong dispelled it, which allowed Shendu to summon Shadowkhan again. As for Jade… well, I haven't seen her."

"Jade has gone Shadowkhan again," Jackie said worriedly. Tohru's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yes. The good part is that she hasn't lost her mind. Yet. But I'm worried about her. She went to hunt Shadowkhan, and she may be in great danger now."

"Then take this," Tohru said as he handed the talisman bag to Jackie, "You'll need them if you want to find and protect Jade."

"Thanks, but what about you?"

"I'll go back to Sensei. He's restoring the protection spell, that would stop Shendu from summoning anymore Shadowkhan."

They both nodded to each other, and went separate ways.

…

Jade fought many groups of Shadowkhan in hopes of finding whoever was summoning them and kick his or her ass. And in each fight, Jade always tried new things, in order to see what her new form was capable of. This was Jade's fourth consecutive fight against a group of ninjas.

"Hey, wait a minute, why am I fighting? I can control you!" Jade said in realization, "Stop! Your Queen commands!"

The Shadowkhan appeared like they were going to obey Jade at first, but it wasn't going to be the case.

"Okay, we'll do it the hard way," Jade said, cracking her knuckles, "I haven't tried any energy blasts yet…"

Jade tried to recall any memory tied to a strong emotion, and soon felt the magic energy coursing through her body. She summoned a ball of dark energy between her hands, and released that energy in the form of a purple beam that eradicated the magic ninjas.

"Score for Jade!" Jade said, pumping her fist, "Oh, when Jackie sees what I can do now he'll _beg_ me to go with him on missions!"

Jade's celebration was interrupted by another group of Shadowkhan; however, the ninjas were already fighting somebody Jade couldn't see yet.

"Guess that one of those 'oh so badass' Section 13 agents needs my help," Jade said in a condescending tone, shaking her head. She cracked her knuckles and rushed to the fight.

Jade's surprised look was monumental when she saw that the ninjas' opponent wasn't a Section 13 agent or one of her friends, but none other than Daolon Wong. What was he doing here? And since the Shadowkhan were fighting him, that meant that he wasn't their summoner. So who did summon the Shadowkhan? Anyway, finding an answer to those questions would have to wait. All what mattered was that Daolon Wong was a dangerous enemy, and had two talismans and a powerful artifact. Jade's face lit when she realized that; if she defeated Wong and recovered the ring and the talismans that the dark chi wizard had stolen, she'd be a heroine.

"Jackpot," Jade said with a smile, as she rubbed her hands.

"Stupid mindless puppets! Your little tricks are no match for my dark power!" Wong said as he blasted a ninja away.

She remained hidden until Wong defeated all the Shadowkhan. When the wizard thought he was alone, Jade made her entry.

"WONG!" Jade yelled as she leaped in front of him.

"Jackie Chan's niece!" Wong said in anger. He then squinted his eyes and added, "But… you're different. I sense a great dark power inside you."

"Prepare to meet your end! You created me, Wong, and now I'm going to uncreate you!" Jade said in an over the top manner. Then she grimaced with disgust and said, "Tch, that sounded much better in my mind. Hell, 'uncreate' isn't even a real word."

Wong wasted no time with one-liners and tried to blast Jade with his heat beam eyes. Jade, however, used her newly found superhuman agility to jump before the beams would hit her, spinning in midair and prepared to deliver a kick to Wong's face when she descended. However, rather than kicking Wong like she did in the Chamber of Wishes, she phased through him as if he were a ghost.

"Last time you caught me by surprise, but things will be different now!" Wong threatened.

"What? An illusion!" Jade concluded.

"Oh, I can assure you that I'm very real, little girl," Wong said before blasting Jade with a dark chi beam.

Ignoring the pain, Jade stood up and said, "You're not the only one who can do that, anti-Uncle!"

Jade cast both hands forward, releasing a purple energy beam from them. Wong shot another blue energy beam from his wood scepter, and both attacks clashed against each other. However, Wong's beam was much stronger and quickly overpowered Jade's, and the blue-skinned girl was blasted away again. However, before she could stand up and counterattack, Wong used his telekinesis to lift Jade and immobilize her.

"Let me go, you old freak!" Jade shouted.

"You have power, little girl. But power is nothing without skill to use it and experience to back it up, " Wing said as he came close to her menacingly. Two mouths appeared in each of his palms. Jade knew exactly where this was going, "Sadly for you, you won't have another chance to use your power anymore, because soon it will be MINE!"

However, before Wong could absorb any of Jade's energy, a blurry blue figure appeared and hit him with the force of ten speeding trucks, sending him flying against the ceiling. The telekinetic grip holding Jade disappeared. To Jade's joy, the blurry figure was Jackie, who was holding two talismans on each hand (Jade correctly guessed them to be the Ox and Rabbit), before placing them in a bag.

"Jade! Are you okay?" Jackie asked as he came close to his niece.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks! Come on, there are still plenty of Shadowkhan to-"

"Jade, what were you thinking, fighting Daolon Wong all by yourself!?" Jackie asked, "You could have died!"

"But I didn't," Jade replied. Her casual tone only angered Jackie more.

"Jade, aren't you conscious about how close you've been to your end? I know you sometimes can be reckless, but this…!" Jackie inhaled deeply, and in a calmer tone, he added, "Jade, you're changing, for the worse. Turn back to human."

"Are you kidding? Didn't you see all the things I can do now?"

"I only saw you being beaten by Wong," Jackie replied, "Now turn human. I'll find you a safe place to hide and-"

"NO!" Jade yelled as he grabbed Jackie by his shirt collar and pulled him down to her height. Her face was of pure rage, "You're always bossing me around, but guess what? That's OVER! From now on, neither you nor nobody else will tell me what to do!"

"Jade, look at yourself, what you're doing!" Jackie pleaded, "You're not like this!"

Jackie's words seemed to have an effect on Jade, as her face of anger mellowed out into confusion. She slowly released Jackie, and in a flash of light, she was human again.

"Uncle Jackie… I'm… I'm sorry. I don't know what I…"

"Shhhh. It's okay, Jade," Jackie said with a genuine smile, "Come on, once all this madness is over, Uncle and Tohru will find a cure for that."

Jade nodded, and followed Jackie.

…

Uncle was trying to restore the protective ward in the Section 13 vault, key word being _trying_, since whenever he was close to complete it, a bunch of ninjas would appear out of nowhere ready to kill him, and the old chi wizard had to stop the spell to defend himself. It happened quite a few times, and the energy spent on both the wards and fighting the Shadowkhan was starting to take its toll on the old Chinese man.

"Why don't you give up, wizard? I can see you are running out of power, while mine is eternal!" Shendu boasted.

"Your verbosity seems to be eternal as well," Uncle said in exasperation, as he was about to restart the protective spell for the umpteenth time.

This time he wasn't even allowed to begin. A squad of five Shadowkhan charged at him with obvious intentions. Armed with a blowfish in his left hand and a lizard in the right, the old chi wizard fired green energy blasts at his attackers. However, Uncle was too tired, and couldn't aim properly. One of the Shadowkhan kicked him in the chest, hurling him backwards, and dropping one of his magic casters.

The hit was too much for Uncle, who was now unconscious. Or that was what Uncle wanted the Shadowkhan to believe, because when one of the ninja came closer to inspect his body, Uncle made him fall to the ground with a low kick.

"Uncle may be old, but he's still strong like a bear and cunning like a fox!" Uncle said as he quickly stood on his feet, "Who else wants a piece of Uncle?"

His taunt was answered with even more Shadowkhan joining the fight. Still, this did not unnerve Uncle one bit.

Much to Uncle's surprise, the Shadowkhan began to dissolve into nothingness. When most of the Shadowkhan were gone, Uncle could see the massive frame of his apprentice.

"Sensei, are you okay?" Tohru asked. His worry for his master was rewarded with a two-finger slap.

"Of course I'm okay! Don't I look okay to you? And where are the talismans?! I told you to keep them safe!"

"The talismans are safe. Jackie has them now. I gave them to him because he was looking for Jade. Who, by the way, has turned Shadowkhan again."

"AYAH!" The old chi wizard yelled, "As if we didn't have enough troubles already!"

"Don't worry sensei, Jackie said that Jade hasn't gone mad again, so we still have some time to act."

Uncle forced himself to clam down, and said, "Yes. Come, cover Uncle while he finishes the protection spell."

Desperate, Shendu called all his remaining Shadowkhan to the Vault; unfortunately for him, only half of them managed to get there in time. Tohru used the same spell as his master to dispel the demonic ninjas into nothingness. After several minutes of conjuring, the protective ward was active again, and the Shadowkhan, upon losing their magic bond with their dragon master, disappeared.

…

After the battle was over, the Chans and Tohru reunited with Captain Black in order to learn the results of the fight. Part of Section 13's infrastructure had been severely damaged due to the fight, and many agents were injured, but fortunately they didn't need to mourn any casualties. Shendu's escape attempt had also been foiled.

On the downside, Daolon Wong managed to steal two talismans, the Snake and the Monkey, and everybody was a hundred percent sure that Wong would come back for the rest.

There was also the problem of Jade becoming a Shadowkhan. While she seemed to be in perfect control of her new form, Uncle knew that it was only a matter of time before her inner darkness would consume her completely. They had to find a solution, and had to find it soon.

* * *

**Author's note: Do you want to know something funny? Shendu was going to be one of the main antagonists of this story, along Wong. He was supposed to get four talismans, one of them the rat, and escape. But my betareader, ZimsMostLoyalServant, pointed out a huge plothole that I wasn't aware of: for Shendu to escape his statue form, he needs all 12 talismans, not just the rat. So not only I had to rewrite this chapter, but also change the plot of this story significatively. Anyway, maybe it was for the better, since now I can introduce elements that I had to leave out in the previous versions.  
**

**I hope you all enjoyed this action-filled chapter. The next one will be up next friday, and won't have any action, but it will be the debut of everybody's favorite thief in the story. Meanwhile, don't forget to leave a review with your thoughts on this chapter, or the story as whole, (despite being only two chapter long so far). And thanks to all the people who have supported this story via reviews, favorite or follow!**


	3. Re-Enter the Viper

**Chapter 3: Re-enter the Viper**

Section 13 was still recovering from the havoc Daolon Wong and Shendu caused when the former's attempt to steal the ten talismans still stored there accidentally caused the latter to be able to summon his Shadowkhan minions. The fact that Shendu's attempt to break free had been foiled was good news indeed, but not only had Wong managed to escape, but he had also gained two other talismans as well. Captain Black entrusted Jackie the eight remaining talismans, since until they could fix all the damage caused by Wong and Shendu, Section 13 wasn't a safe place for the talismans anymore. Jackie and Jade had to move back to Uncle's house. Uncle placed a folding bed for Jade in the shop, but told Jackie that the couch was good enough for him.

The Chans, however, forgot about Wong and the stolen talismans and directed all their attention towards Jade.

First, some of the Section 13 doctors performed several tests on her. While her body presented clear anomalies, none of them explained her state, and much less showed how Jade could be cured.

Later, it was Uncle and Tohru's turn again. First they used the Horse talisman on her, to no effect. Jade reminded everybody that the Horse talisman only healed physical wounds, but didn't undo magic spells.

"Plus, not that I'm sick or whatnot," Jade added. She hated when people referred to her state as a disease to be cured.

Then they decided to try an older solution, and they showered Jade with the same purple potion that erased the evil tattoo that turned her into the Queen of the Shadowkhan the first time. Once again, Jade told Uncle that the doctors had inspected every centimeter of her skin, in both human and Shadowkhan forms, and found no trace of any tattoo.

After all their attempts to change Jade back to human failed, Uncle decided that more "_re-seeeearch_" was necessary. While the old chi wizard locked himself up in his library, he instructed his Japanese apprentice to conduct several tests on Jade. Jackie had told him that Jade became more reckless, harsh, disobedient and rude when she was a Shadowkhan, but her personality returned back to her usual self once she turned back to human. Tohru's first test confirmed that Jade's negative traits accentuated over time the longer she remained a Shadowkhan, which was explained by a constant rise of negative chi in her, yet the evil chi slowly disappeared once she was human again. The Japanese giant concluded that, if Jade spent too much time in Shadowkhan form, her spirit would be irreversibly corrupted by the negative chi, which would turn her once again into the feared Queen of the Shadowkhan. He estimated that this would happen if Jade stayed a Shadowkhan for more than an hour.

The next step was to test Jade's abilities in Shadowkhan form. Tohru noticed that she was much stronger, almost as strong as him, although that strength seemed to come with a price, since rather than being a natural trait, her strength was something she could only use a limited number of times, and the girl was breathless upon reaching that limit. She was also much faster and more agile, as well as being able to jump really high (she managed to get to the shop's upper floor in a single leap, and declared that stairs were no longer part of her world). Although Jade's skill that caused the biggest impression on the wizard apprentice was her ability to produce dark chi blasts out of her bare hands. Though further examination showed that that was the only thing Jade could do, since it was raw, uncontrolled energy. For actual spells, she'd need an item to channel the energy, like Uncle's blowfish or lizard.

After these tests, Tohru shared the results with his master, who found them interesting, as well as useful to concoct a cure for Jade. However, these tests also help him to find a temporal solution.

…

Jade woke up with a loud yawn, and still, in her nightgown, went to the kitchen, where Jackie was already, having breakfast while reading the newspaper, as well as Tohru, who apparently had breakfast already and was now washing the dishes.

"Hello everybody!" Jade said very cheerfully as she picked a box of cereal, a bottle of milk, and poured the contents of both in a single bowl, "Hey Big T, what kind of tests are we going to do today?"

"What? ...Oh, sensei said that no more tests are necessary," Tohru replied.

"Oh," Jade said. She had a lot of fun while doing those tests, and seeing Tohru's surprised face whenever Jade showed what she could do now, "So… does Uncle have a way to turn me back to full human?"

"Not yet," Uncle said as he walked in, "But my apprentice and I came up with a temporary remedy."

The old man put a yin-yang necklace in Jade's hands.

"What's this? Some magic trinket?" Jade asked a bit puzzled as she held the locket in front of her.

"Open it," Tohru instructed her.

Jade did so, and saw the Tiger talisman inside it.

"That amulet channels the power of the Tiger talisman, which gives spiritual balance to its wearer. So as long as you wear it, it will prevent the negative chi from corrupting you."

"Neat!" Jade said as he put the amulet around her neck, "Now I can use my Shadowkhan powers without worrying about becoming a psycho!"

"Jade, you shouldn't do that. You could hurt somebody. Or yourself," Jackie interjected.

"Awww, you're always such a party pooper," Jade pouted as she crossed her arms.

"Actually, Jackie isn't completely wrong there," Tohru said, "You see, the amulet will act as a dam, blocking the excess of dark chi. But if you build up too much dark chi… well, the dam will break, and the results will be unpredictable."

"Uncle, did you find what caused this… transformation?" Jackie asked, though deep inside he already knew the answer, "It was when Jade touched that ring, isn't it?"

"Exactly. When Daolon Wong was wishing his powers back, Jade was touching the ring, so it's possible that the ring also granted Jade Wong's request, and gave her back her lost powers."

"But how are-"

"One more thing! Since Jade wasn't wearing the ring, nor did she explicitly make that wish, the result was an anomaly, a magical misfire. That's why she can switch to Shadowkhan form willingly, and why she's unable to do certain things she could during her first corruption, like summoning and controlling Shadowkhan. One more thing! Jade can do this now due to her powers being unstable, but as long as they become more balanced, she may slip back into being the Queen of the Shadowkhan, so we must find a remedy soon! One more thing! We've also found other kinds of new chi in Jade that it's not Shadowkhan!"

This caught everyone by surprise.

"Come again?" Jade asked.

"Jade was the unwilling recipient of Wong's wish to 'recover his lost power', but her Shadowkhan's powers weren't the only powers Jade ever had," Uncle explained.

"Uncle, I don't think I'm following," Jackie said, scratching his head in confusion.

"Remember when Jade was accidentally infused with the power of all the talismans?" Uncle asked, causing Jade's face to beam in joy.

"Does that mean that I also have all the talisman powers?" Jade asked in an extremely happy tone. She turned into Shadowkhan and pressed her forehead with her two index fingers, "Heat beam eyes!"

"Jade, no!" Jackie yelled as he and the others fell to the ground. However, nothing happened.

"Come on, I said 'Heat beam eyes'!" Jade said in annoyance as she kept pressing her forehead.

"Actually, you only have _some_ of the talisman powers, and only in a small dose, as evidenced by your increased strength and speed, that come from the Ox and Rabbit talismans," Uncle explained, much to Jade's disappointment.

"Awww… oh well, shouldn't be sad since I can do plenty of cool stuff now. Now if I could only summon Shadowkhan… come on Shadowkhan, your Queen calls for your presence!" Jade said as she tried to summon Shadowkhan, but nothing appeared.

"Jade, you shouldn't do that! The Shadowkhan are the offspring of darkness, born to do and spread evil!" Uncle said in a chastising tone.

"Well, they could do good if they had a good boss… like me."

"Like all the good things they did the last time you gained control over them?" Jackie asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Tch. You're never going to let that go, are you?" Jade pouted.

"I'm just reminding you of what happens when you toy with forces you don't understand," Jackie replied.

"One more thing! I'm afraid that such a complex transformation has no remedy. If we ever want Jade to return back to normal, we have nothing but one option – we must retrieve the Ring of Kur-Asan, and Jade must use it to wish her humanity back."

Jade was about to reply, when everyone heard the sound of a bell, meaning that somebody had entered the shop.

"A customer? This soon?" Jackie asked, puzzled, as he went to greet the would-be customer.

It turns out it wasn't a customer. The person who entered the door was a woman with long raven hair and tanned skin, wearing a pink sleeveless casual dress and yellow sandals.

"Viper?" Jackie asked in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"Always so well mannered, babyface. That's how you greet all your old friends?" Viper asked.

"That's how I greet thieves," Jackie retorted.

"Come on, you know that's not me anymore. You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Ha! Just what I said!" Jade said as she walked in, before running up to hug her, "Hey Viper!"

"Good to see that somebody's happy to see me," Viper said. Then, upon seeing Jade in Shadowkhan form, she quirked an eyebrow, and asked, "Uh, Jade, what happened to you? That skin tone can't be healthy."

"Oh, you mean this? It's nothing, really," Jade said, and switched back to human to prove her point, "It's a long story."

"You haven't answered my question, Viper. What are you doing here?" Jackie asked again, "Did Jade call you?"

"Oh no, I came here on my own, to check on you guys," Viper explained. Upon seeing Jackie's suspicious expression, she added, "Section 13 was attacked twice in less than a month, first by that giant fire-breathing lizard, next by a wizard and an army of ninjas, if my sources are to be believed. Believe it or not, I was worried that something bad may have happened to you. What's going on here?"

"None of your business," Jackie replied matter of factly, "And how did you know about what happened in Section 13? That should be top secret."

"Let's just say that the Internet has more to offer than Facebook and Youtube," the former thief replied.

"Hey Viper, are you hungry? Because we were having breakfast. Come on, come with me and I'll bring you up to date," Jade said as she pulled Viper to the kitchen.

The moment Viper disappeared, Uncle entered the shop.

"Did they buy anything?" Uncle asked.

"No, Uncle," Jackie replied.

"You're an awful salesman!" the old man yelled at Jackie as he gave his nephew a two-finger slap.

…

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Daolon Wong wandered through his old fortress in China, pondering about what had gone wrong during his raid in Section 13. It was supposed to be a quick theft, but had turned into a complete disaster. Well, not complete, since he at least got two more talismans.

But in the end, did that change anything? His original goal was to get all the ten remaining talismans, yet he only got one fifth of them, just another defeat in a long lists of defeats. His enemies had the remaining eight, and now they'd protect them in a fiercer way, since Wong himself had unwittingly warned them.

In a moment of clarity, the dark chi wizard realized that he had to change something about his way of acting if he didn't want to be beaten by the Chans again and again. Everything he tried failed, so to keep trying the same things was an utterly stupid move. Something had to change. Maybe he could improve his dark chi warriors…

Yes, those warriors always served him well. He remembered the time he recruited them as if was yesterday, despite being almost half a century ago. Originally they were three street rats that made the mistake of trying to rob Wong, whom they mistook as a defenseless old man. Wong thought about giving them an exemplary punishment, but after seeing their strength and fighting skills, he decided to employ them as his muscle men. Over the years, Wong's evil magic had eroded their will and personality little by little, in order to made them absolutely loyal. As the years passed, they began to talk less, to do without eating and other basic necessities, to think less by themselves and just carry out orders, until they lost all their humanity and free will, becoming little more than organic, magical automatons ready to do their master's bidding.

The dark chi warriors made a lot of accomplishments, and were key to many of Wong's successes, but now the old evil wizard started to realize that they weren't nearly as effective as they were before. At first he thought that making them stronger, giving them more powerful weapons would do the trick, but for how long, until Chan and his family find a way to beat them? No, he needed completely new dark chi warriors. Not just with better or more powerful abilities, but without the old warriors' flaws.

Suddenly, Wong's mind was overflowing with ideas. It was time to work.

…

Back at Uncle's Rare Finds, Jade just finished explaining Viper all that had happened recently.

"This Wong looks like a threat. If you're going to take him down you can count me in," Viper said.

"Really? Why are you so interested in helping us all of sudden?" Jackie asked.

"To help Jade, of course. You said that if we don't get that magical ring back, Jade may become some sort of insane dark sorceress, and I don't want that to happen. Plus, who better than a thief to steal a jewel?"

"She has a point," Tohru said, much to Jackie's annoyance.

"Okay, you can come," Jackie said in defeat.

"When things get bad – and they will – you'll be happy to have me around, babyface," Viper said as she playfully pinched Jackie's cheek, much to his annoyance.

Viper had only fought against Daolon Wong once, when the evil wizard kidnapped Santa Claus in an attempt to absorb the jolly man's chi. She fought along the rest of the J-Team against Wong and his improvised army of evil snowmen, and in the end stood triumphant. Viper stopped believing in Santa Claus a long time ago, but after Jade appeared at her Hanukkah party with a real elf, and seeing the fat man in real life, she had to reconsider some of her beliefs. But hey, if magic was real, why not Santa?

"So, what's the plan?" Jade asked.

"Find Wong, and get the talismans and the ring," Uncle said.

"First, we need to put the talismans in a safe place, since they can't be kept at Section 13 for the time being," Jackie suggested.

"No. With four talismans and the ring, Wong is more powerful than ever, and only magic can defeat magic. We will need the power of the talismans we still have in order to fight him in equal terms."

"But what if we lose them? If Wong gets his hands on one of the remaining talismans, we won't be able to recover them!"

"Uncle has already thought of that," the old chi wizard said as he rummaged through his pockets, "And came up with this!"

Uncle showed everybody a bracelet with an octagonal socket on it.

"A… bracelet? How's that going to help?" Viper asked.

"Not a bracelet, a magical bracelet!"

"Oh, that changes everything then," Viper remarked sourly.

Tohru felt the need to explain what Uncle's latest invention was, since he also collaborated in the making.

"This bracelet will prevent anybody from stealing the talismans from us, or losing them accidentally. When you put a talisman in the socket, it's permanently attached to the socket thanks to a spell, and it can't be removed by anyone else but Uncle. And there's another spell that attaches the bracelet to whoever wears it, and can't be removed by anyone else but its wearer or Uncle," the Japanese giant explained.

"You can thank Daolon Wong. It was him who unwillingly gave me that idea!" Uncle said with a chuckle, as if enjoying the irony.

"But what if we take off the bracelet and Wong takes it away from us?" Jade asked.

"Uncle thought of everything! The bracelets also have another spell that won't allow Wong to touch it. It was going to just be a spell that would stop anyone with dark chi from touching it, but then Uncle realized that Jade couldn't touch the bracelets either," Uncle said. Then he turned to Tohru and added, "And you said that keeping some of Wong's hair was a stupid idea!"

"And why didn't you simply put that spell on the talismans?" Viper asked.

"Because the talismans can't be altered by external magic forces! It was a precaution Lo Pei took when he created them. He knew other wizards would try to alter the talismans in some way, corrupt their power, or absorb their essence, like Daolon Wong is probably trying to do as we speak."

Jade was about to remind everybody about the time she absorbed the powers of the talismans, but then she realized that the cause was the Section 13 vault's electrified floor, and Uncle said that the talismans were immune to magic, not electricity.

"Okay. Before we go, let me call Captain Black to see if he can take care of Jade," Jackie said as he pulled up his cell phone.

"Awww…" Jade said as she crossed her arms, "Come on, didn't you hear Uncle? Magic must defeat magic, and I have tons of magic now!"

Jade's arguments fell on deaf ears. However, before Jackie could speed dial Black's number, Uncle gave him an especially hard two-finger slap.

"What are you doing? Don't you think of your niece's safety?" Uncle asked, angered.

"What? That's what I'm doing! I want Jade to be out of this madness!" Jackie replied.

"Jade has one of the talismans, which makes her a target for Daolon Wong! We're the only ones who can protect her from the forces of darkness! Plus, if Jade's dark chi goes out of control, who's going to deal with her?"

Jackie sighed in exasperation. Today definitely wasn't his day.

"Okay Jade, it seems that you will come with us. But you'll have to do everything I say. And I don't want you to do anything remotely dangerous!" Jackie asked.

"No problem, Jackie, you won't have to worry about me once. I promise!" Jade said cheerfully.

Jackie sighed again and rolled his eyes. If only that were true.

Tohru pulled out a bag, and emptied its contents – the talismans – on the kitchen table.

"Now let's split up the talismans," Tohru said, "We have eight talismans, minus the one Jade has, that makes seven. Seven talismans for five people, that means that nobody can have more than two. Does somebody have any preference?"

"I'd like Jade to have the Dog talisman as well. For precaution," Jackie said as he picked the Dog talisman and passed it to his niece. Jackie knew that, even with all his warnings, with all that power Jade wouldn't keep herself from charging into battle when a fight happened. The talisman would ensure his niece's safety and wellbeing.

"There's a talisman with my name on it," Viper said as she began to scan the talismans. When she couldn't find her favorite talisman, she frowned and asked, "Hey, where's the Snake talisman?"

"Wong stole it," Tohru replied.

"Bummer," Viper said as she looked at the remaining talismans again, and picked the Dragon. "Guess that if I can't have the snake, I'll pick the one that looks the closest. Plus throwing fireballs can be fun, too."

"Hey Viper, can I make a suggestion?" Jade asked as she tossed the Ox talisman at her.

"The Ox? Do you think I'm weak?" the former thief asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh no, I think that's the talisman that complements you the best. You see, you already have plenty of speed and agility, but while you're also strong, it's not your most outstanding attribute, and the Ox will put your physical strength to the same level as your speed and agility. Plus, you're quite stealthy on your own, so you don't really need the Snake talisman to begin with. And Tohru is the complete opposite," Jade said as she tossed the Rabbit talisman to the wizard apprentice, "He's big and strong, but lacks speed, so the Rabbit goes to him. And uncle Jackie, this one has your name all over it."

Jade gave him the Horse talisman.

"The Horse?" Jackie asked.

"Of course! You're overall a good fighter, but you get as much as you dish. Plus you're quite prone to end up in… painful situations. With this little pony, you'll be saying 'bad day' much less often."

"Wow Jade, when did you become so good at analyzing and balancing fighting skills?" Viper asked, truly intrigued, and impressed.

"Video games," Jade replied, proudly smiling, "Jackie's martial art lessons were of some help too."

"There are two talismans left; the Sheep and the Rat," Tohru mentioned (apparently, he was okay with Jade's reasoning as for why he should have the Rabbit talisman), "Does anyone want them?"

"Tch, those talismans are nearly useless in a fight," Jade said with a bit of snub.

To say that Jade wasn't too fond of the Sheep talisman was an understatement. Aside from its uselessness in combat, Jade had very bad experiences regarding its astral projection ability – the first time she used it, Shendu took over her body, leaving her as a disembodied spirit that couldn't be seen nor heard, and could only communicate via dreams. Not only had this happened again when fighting Wong for the noble sheep, but she later ended up in Jackie's body. Sure, being Jackie Chan, the man she idolized more than anybody, was fun for some time, but she didn't want to spend the rest of her life as a man. No, Jade wouldn't even touch the Sheep talisman again, not even with a three-meter pole.

"I think I'll take care of them," Uncle declared, "Useless or not, we can't allow a single talisman to fall into Wong's hands."

"We have to find Daolon Wong. Sensei, should I prepare a locator spell?" the Japanese giant said.

"Yes. One more thing! Grab all the books that say something about the ring, we will need to know the extent of the ring's power and how to counter it. We will have to do lots of research!"

"I'll call Captain Black and arrange a transport. I doubt we can get to Wong's hideout via subway," Jackie said.

Everybody left the kitchen to get ready for a long journey, and the inevitable fight against Daolon Wong. They had to win. There were far too many things at stake to lose.

* * *

**Author's Note: While the first chapter got (at first) only two reviews, second chapter got six! Thank you guys, you suck- I mean, you rock! Even if there was no action in this chapter, I still hope that you enjoyed it. I felt kinda bad for Jackie, he got no respect on this chapter. But it was still fun XD**

**Next Friday, it's the heroes' turn to storm the bad guy's base, but Wong has a rather unpleasant surprise prepared for them. Meanwhile, don't forget to leave your thoughts on this chapter or the story as whole with your reviews!**


	4. The Darkest Mage's Champions

**Chapter 4: The Darkest Mage's Champions**

It was ironic how, despite all of Uncle's complaining about not needing Section 13's help when dealing with these kind of magical threats, since "magic must defeat magic", he actually never complained when the secret agency provided fast jets needed to travel around the world. Jackie would have been penniless by this point if he had had to pay for all the travels he did after that fateful first encounter with the Dark Hand, which, not-so-coincidentally was also the same day Jade became part of his life.

Jackie also found ironic the tension he was feeling due to their upcoming encounter with Daolon Wong. He had fought that old man plenty of times, standing triumphant most of the time even if the dark wizard didn't make things easy for him. Still, whenever he thought of him, the archeologist couldn't help but think that, after fighting Shendu and his siblings, Wong wasn't much of a threat, relatively speaking.

So, why was Jackie so nervous? Maybe because for the first time, Wong managed to leave a permanent mark on somebody close to him. Jackie's eyes landed on Jade, who looked careless as usual, casually playing with a handheld console as if nothing had happened. Yes, he had to save Jade. He would die before letting his niece to slip back into being the Queen of the Shadowkhan again. For some reason, world-level threats seemed to be smaller than smaller threats that could affect your loved ones.

"I can't wait to fight that old geezer again, I have some scores to settle. Uncle said that some of my powers haven't manifested yet, and if anime is to be believed, a good fight against a deadly foe is the best way to unleash your hidden potential," Jade said, not taking her eyes off of her console. She waited for her uncle to protest, but when Jackie remained silent, she added, "Jackie? Aren't you going to tell me to stay away from fights?"

"I always do. And the result is always the same," Jackie said with a sigh, "The only thing I'm going to tell you is to be extremely careful, despite your powers and the Dog talisman. Wong may have some more nasty surprises prepared for us."

"Don't worry, I won't let him to fool me again. Plus, I have the Dog talisman practically attached to my body. Wong can't possibly harm me," Jade replied confidently, waving her forearm with the magic bracelet to Jackie.

Jade remembered the time she fought Wong and his troll-like minions when she had the power of the twelve Talismans. They gave her some hell, but the talisman-empowered Jade was too much for them. Then she went after Wong. She thought that she was literally invincible, yet Wong defeated her with a wave of his hand. She also remembered how during their latest encounter in Section 13, Jade was overflowing with confidence knowing for sure that she could easily defeat Wong, and ended up humiliated again.

Tohru's test results came to her mind; her Shadowkhan form increased her negative attributes, and maybe making her extremely confident was a side effect too. Jackie always told her to never underestimate an opponent, and she did exactly that. Twice. There wouldn't be a third time.

"You must think I'm too overprotective. But one day, you will have children of your own, and you will understand how I feel," Jackie said, with a small smile.

"Children? Hehe, sorry Jackie, but that won't be me," Jade said with a chuckle as she shook her head.

"You don't want to have children when you grow up?"

"Nope. I'd be too busy fighting crime, having adventures, traveling around the globe, and being Section 13's top agent to raise kids. But I'll take yours and Viper's kids with me to my adventures, so they can have as much fun and excitement as I had going with you."

"I don't think I – hey, wait a minute, why do you mean by 'me and Viper'?" Jackie said, mildly outraged. Even if expecting Jade to grow some common sense and stay out of danger was a lost cause, he at least had hoped that she would stop pairing him with that thief.

"You know, a kid from you two would be all kinds of awesome. Even as a baby she would sure kick ass. I said 'she' because I hope you have at least one girl."

Nervously, Jackie looked at Viper, sat a good distance from him and Jade, but not far enough to miss the conversation. She was listening to the radio, wearing earphones, while taking a look at a magazine. Apparently, she wasn't listening to them. "Apparently" being the key word, as Jackie knew.

"Jade, why do you want me to be with that thief?" Jackie said, lowering his voice.

"Ex-thief. And let's see – she's pretty, she's smart, she's funny, she's into martial arts, and she likes you," Jade said as she counted off fingers, "Really, how can't you not like her?"

"Because she's… my natural enemy! People like her steal treasures me and other archeologists work so hard to find and preserve," Jackie explained.

"You know she's changed. She hasn't committed a crime since the whole Pink Puma thing, and she helped us a lot after that. Why can't you accept that she's changed?"

"People don't change like that so quickly. All of what you say is true but… I still don't know if I can trust her."

"Tch, you never had that trouble with Tohru, the former Dark Hand enforcer, who fought you multiple times and tried to cut my stomach open to get a talisman," Jade said, shooting a challenging look at her uncle [1]. Then she added, "But I already forgave him for that."

"Well, that's because Tohru… uh…" Jackie said as he rubbed the back of his head. He was certainly at a loss.

Jade didn't miss Jackie's confusion, and her lips formed an evil grin. "Ha, I knew it!"

…

Meanwhile, at Daolon Wong's fortress, he was about to finish his new dark chi warriors. He had been working for days almost nonstop, studying books, creating and mixing potions, reciting incantations, all that was necessary for his new creation. For the moment, they were nothing but three mummified corpses, but that would change soon.

The spell he used to create his first dark chi warriors was rather simple, just as the warriors themselves were. This time, he took all the time and effort necessary to make his new warriors perfect. First, he needed three corpses that would serve as raw material. Then, he would use his magic and alchemy to give them the proper shape and size of their bodies, as well as to mold their minds, and infuse them with magic abilities; this time, rather than three fighters, each warrior would have a different specialization in order to make for a more versatile team. And lastly, he would have to infuse them with life, to which he required three sacrifices. Fortunately, he had three "volunteers" for the task.

"Gan, Ren, Chui!" Daolong Wong called, and his dark chi warriors appeared before him, "I have one last mission for you. To give up your lives so a new and better generation of warriors can take your place as my servants!"

The three warriors stood there, motionless, unaffected by their master's news of getting rid of them and being replaced. The dark chi wizard waved his wand while he muttered a spell, and the orange skinned humanoid monsters turned into blue smoke. When the smoke vanished, it revealed three small balls of light flying around at random. With another spell, Wong made each of the balls of light infuse themselves in each of the mummies.

Wong smiled in satisfaction. Nothing had gone wrong. In a few minutes, he'd have three new, more powerful dark chi warriors at his command. If he could only test them…

Suddenly, Wong felt something, like an unwanted presence. Soon he realized that his anti-intruder wards had been activated, meaning that somebody was near. The dark chi wizard rushed towards his stone cauldron, and muttered a spell. The liquid inside the cauldron revealed the Chans, heading towards his fortress, probably to reclaim the ring and the talismans. The wizard smiled in satisfaction; they couldn't have arrived at a more timely moment.

…

Unsurprisingly, Uncle's locator spell brought them to China, more specifically to the mountainous zone where Daolon Wong's fortress was located. Not far from there was also the Ben-Shui monastery. If things went awry, they could take shelter there. The plane landed at the base of the mountain, and they had to walk the rest of the way through the rocky paths.

"Hey, did you guys notice how cold it get all of sudden?" Viper asked as she rubbed her arms.

"That is the dark chi impregnating the air and the land you are feeling. The territory we just entered belongs to the darkness," Uncle explained, without taking his eyes from the clay statue that marked Daolon's position.

"I remember this place. Daolon took Jade here when she was accidentally infused with the power of the Talismans," Jackie recalled, "We should see a castle soon."

And indeed, not long after that, they saw Wong's impressive castle.

"Okay, here we are. Somebody got a plan?" Jade asked.

"I don't think Wong will open us if we just knock the door," Tohru said, "Should we break the door down?"

"No, we should catch Wong by surprise. Get into the castle without being seen. Let's see if this place has a back door or something," Jackie suggested.

The group walked around the fortress, hoping to find an alternative way to get in, but got no luck.

"If there's a secret entrance, it's probably meant as a quick way to escape. I guess that there's no other option but the main door," Jackie said.

"Hey, what about a window?" Jade asked, "I think I can reach it!"

Jade transformed into her Shadowkhan form, and easily reached the window in an impressive leap.

"Everything's clear!" Jade said from above.

"Hey, that window has to be five meters high, and none of us can jump such a height!" Jackie replied from below.

"Don't worry babyface, got that part covered," Viper said as she grabbed him by the collar of his sweater, "Jade, catch him!"

"Hey, what are you-"

Viper tossed Jackie upwards, and he couldn't help but scream as his brain processed what was happening. Still, Jackie's reflexes didn't abandon him, and he managed to get into the window rather easily.

"Warn me the next time you do something like that!" Jackie said, rather pissed.

"You wouldn't have let me do it if I told you first. And lower your voice, or you may alert Wong," Viper said. Then she turned to Uncle and Tohru and said, "Okay, who's next?"

"Him," Uncle said as he pointed at Tohru.

A few moments later, everybody was already inside the castle. Viper had gotten in thanks to a rope she was carrying in her backpack.

"You could have told me that you had a rope before tossing me like that," Jackie said, still pissed.

"Come on Jackie, you need to be open to more exciting experiences," Viper said as she pinched his cheek.

"That's what I say all the time," Jade added, as if she was a mother talking about her son.

Jackie cleared his throat loudly, and said, "This place is too big, and looking for the ring will take us too much time. Maybe we should split in groups, but that also means that we'll be easier prey for Wong."

"I'm all for sticking together," Jade said, "It's not like we're in a hurry or anything."

"By the way, how do you know the ring is here?" Viper asked.

"This is Wong's fortress. It's his safest place. Probably he keeps it in some sort of underground vault, or security box, like we do to hide the Talismans at Section 13," Jackie confirmed.

"But what if Wong keeps the ring on him?" Tohru asked.

"I don't think so. The chances of losing it would be far too great," Jackie said.

"So we're going to assault some vault containing a valuable jewel," Viper said, "And you rejected the help of a former thief."

"You're not going to let that go, are you?" Jackie asked, annoyed.

They started exploring the building without encountering Wong or any of his minions. They registered all the places of interest that could have had the hidden ring, such as the library, the laboratory, and even the torture chamber. Viper examined carefully every room they entered, trying to guess which places could hide a secret vault or safe box. Still, she also remembered that Daolon Wong was a wizard, and if he used magic to hide them, there was no way for the former thief to find them.

After exploring several floors and finding absolutely nothing, they went to the basement. The basement was a huge, empty area with nothing in it but one item – a pedestal, and something glowing resting on top of it.

"This has to be a joke," Jackie said as he stared at the ring, a few feet away from him.

"Anybody could see this is a trap," Viper said, "An item of great value, being left on a pedestal, completely unguarded? Wong is certainly underestimating us."

"I don't even think that's the real ring," Jade interjected.

"But what if it is?" Tohru wondered.

Everybody agreed that, while the trap was obvious, they simply couldn't ignore the ring as a fake. They had to take it.

"Okay, I guess we just go and grab the ring. Any ideas?" Jade asked.

"I think I have one," Jackie said. He turned to Viper and asked, "May I borrow your rope?"

Viper handed it to him, not knowing what the archeologist was planning to do, even if it was pretty obvious in hindsight. He tied the rope in a way that formed a lasso whip, and used it to catch the ring. No trap was triggered.

"Wow, when did you learn to do that, babyface?" Viper asked, "I'm pretty sure there's an interesting story behind that."

"Less interesting than you think. Let's say that I worked on a farm during some summers to pay college," Jackie explained.

Uncle immediately took the ring from his nephew's hands, and examined it.

"This ring has strong negative magic on it. If somebody put this ring on, something terrible would happen. Better to discard it immediately."

"Well, at least we tried," Jade said with a shrug.

Suddenly, the ring began to glow with a dark blue light, and levitated from Uncle's hand, releasing streams of blue energy that spun around the group many times, weaving an energy dome that left the team trapped inside.

"I knew it was a trap. But for some reason, that doesn't make me feel better," Viper said, rolling her eyes.

"Uncle, can you get us out of here?" Jackie asked.

"Yes, but Uncle will need some time to prepare the proper spell," the old chi wizard said as he took out a small cauldron and several small jars of potion ingredients, and started to bark orders at his apprentice as he mixed some of the ingredients.

Daolon Wong suddenly appeared before them in a cloud of blue smoke.

"Ha! I knew the temptation of getting the ring would be too much for you to pass, even if it was obvious that it was a trap," the dark chi wizard said with a triumphant grin, "Now give me the other talismans!"

"Why don't you come and get them?" Jade said with a smirk, "Oh, that's right, you can't until you undo this force field!"

"Trust me girl, I've already thought of everything," Wong said as he snapped his fingers, and the energy dome began to shrink.

Jade let out a high-pitched scream as Jackie and Viper tried to push the dome outwards.

"Uncle, how's that's spell coming?" Jackie asked, as he was losing ground to the shrinking dome.

Instead of the usual abrasive comeback, Uncle simply recited his trademark incantation, which caused the liquid that was mixed in his cauldron to project an energy beam upwards that destroyed the energy dome completely.

"Now Wong, you better give us your talismans and the ring, and come with us in peace," Jackie said.

"Yeah, don't make us to kick your ass again. We've already done it dozens of times and it's starting to become repetitive," Jade said, "Let me guess, now you will go 'Gan, Ren, Chui!', right?"

But Jade was about to be proven wrong when Wong yelled, "Ironfist, Fang, Tempest, come and serve your master!"

Everybody was taken aback (except Viper, since she never got to know Wong that much) when he called three different names from the ones they were so used to hear (in fact, he even used those names to call Finn, Ratso and Chow too). In an instant, three new dark chi warriors appeared before him in clouds of blue smoke.

The first one was a rather big and muscular man, with broad shoulders, pale skin, little hair on his head, and a very unfriendly face, wearing nothing but black pants, an iron belt, brown boots and two oversized gauntlets. This last detail made everybody assume that this guy was the so-called "Ironfist".

Next to him was a tall and slender woman with raven hair tied in a long ponytail, wearing black and green leather armor, long black gloves, and black thigh-high boots. This was the one called "Fang".

And lastly, there was a man wearing a blue and white robe and dark blue baggy pants, his face obscured by an oversized coolie hat. This was "Tempest".

"Wong has new recruits!" Jade said in shock.

"Attack!" Wong yelled, pointing his finger towards the J-Team.

Tempest raised his arms, creating a large, dark cloud above him. The cloud began to cast lightning bolts at the J-Team, forcing them to disperse. Instinctively, Jackie grabbed Jade while fleeing from the deathly electric blast. Unfortunately, the archeologist didn't notice Ironfist charging at him. When Jackie and Ironfist clashed, it was the former who was sent hurling backwards, dropping Jade, as if he had been charged by a raging bull. Tempest noticed Jackie's predicament, and aimed the next lightning at him. However, Jade jumped in front of Jackie just in time to intercept the electric bolt.

"JADE!" Jackie yelled in horror as he saw his niece being struck by lightning.

However, Jade was still standing on her feet.

"Dog talisman, remember?" Jade said, waving her wrist with the talisman on it, "Still, that hurt like hell."

"Jade, don't do that again, EVER! I thought you were dead!" Jackie said, both angry and worried at the same time.

"I wonder if someday you will thank me for all the times I've saved your butt, but anyway…" Jade said as she turned into her Shadowkhan form, "Let's kick some ass!"

They saw Ironfist charging at them again, but Viper knocked him back with a well-placed flying kick.

"Leave this to me, babyface," Viper said with a smirk.

Apparently, Viper's kick didn't harm Ironfist much, since the hulking man was charging again, this time at Viper, with a murderous expression of rage on his face, both fists in the air, ready to strike. Rather than dodging the attack like she would normally do, she opted to block it. Even with the Ox talisman, the former thief was almost overwhelmed by the man's massive strength. Despite her natural speed and strength boost, she was having trouble dealing with the gauntlet-wielding man. Remembering that she also had the Dragon talisman, she back-flipped to put some distance between herself and her foe, cast one of her palms forward, and released a fire stream. Ironfist used his massive gauntlets to shield himself from the incoming blaze. The gauntlets protected him, but they were burning hot.

"Ugh! That hurt, you cursed little woman!" Ironfist said, speaking for the first time. His voice was deep and guttural, "Now I'll turn little woman into little corpse!"

While Viper was fighting Ironfist, Jackie and Jade were facing Fang (well, Jackie wanted to face Fang alone, but Jade joined him). The black haired woman summoned two long glowing daggers in each hand, one red and one blue. They appeared to be made of pure energy.

"Fang's sorry for having to kill such a handsome man and a child," Fang said as she twirled the daggers, "But Fang must carry the master's will."

The woman leaped at the duo, doing several somersaults in mid air, landing with both daggers facing downwards. Jackie and Jade jumped in opposite directions to avoid the attack from above, and the moment Fang landed, Jackie engaged in a fight with her.

"You know, I'm not very fond of fighting a woman either," Jackie said as he grabbed Fang's arm before she could gut him, "But in this case, it's unavoidable."

After trading some kicks and punches, Jackie managed to knock the red glowing dagger from Fang's hand, which rapidly dissolved into nothing. However, Fang merely summoned another magic dagger to replace the lost one. Jade decided it was a good time to intervene, and leaped at her with incredible speed, and delivered a hard punch to the face. Fang was slightly hurled backwards. Jackie rushed towards Fang before she could recover from Jade's punch, but the woman was stronger than either Jackie or Jade had anticipated, and almost slashed Jackie's chest when the archeologist came close enough to her.

While Jackie and Jade dealt with Fang, Uncle and his apprentice fought Wong and his spell-casting minion, Tempest. Engaged in a deadly battle, they were trading chi blasts and lightning bolts, with no side gaining the upper hand.

"Surrender Wong! Fighting you is getting tiresome, and Uncle has better things to do!" Uncle yelled as he cast a chi blast at his evil counterpart.

"Surrender? Now that I'm at my greatest moment? Ha! Guess that your age is finally starting to affect your mind!" Wong replied, before trying to blast Uncle with his heat vision.

Instead of a chi blast like usual, Uncle cast a beam that wrapped around Wong like rope made of solid energy. However, Tempest released Wong by destroying the magic rope with an accurate electric blast. Then, he opened his arms wide, and engulfed himself, Uncle and Tohru into a tornado.

"I don't know why I stuck to my old dark chi warriors for so long when they did nothing but fail me," Wong said with a cackle.

Floating above his hated nemesis and his apprentice, with them unable to move due to the tornado, Wong began to fire blue energy beams at them. Still, Uncle managed to counter all of Wong's attacks despite the handicap.

"Tohru! Do something about this wind!" the old chi wizard ordered.

Tohru decided to put magic aside from the moment and turn to his old, reliable, physical strength. He activated the Rabbit talisman, and used his super speed to charge Tempest, knocking him backwards in a powerful tackle. The tornado dispelled shortly after that.

"Take that, Wong!" Uncle said with a smug grin, "No matter how many new minions you get, you will never win!"

"You think so? Let's see if you're so confident after this!" Wong said before turning to Fang, who was still fighting Jackie and Jade, "Fang! Go for the chi wizard! Do as we planned!"

"Fang won't fail," the woman said before running away from Jackie and towards Uncle.

However, whatever Wong had planned to do to Uncle, Tohru wasn't going to allow it. The Japanese giant stood between his master and Wong's female minion.

"If you want Uncle, you'll have to pass over my dead body!" Tohru said, trying to sound as menacing as possible.

"Additional killing is an incentive for Fang," the woman said with a pleasured smirk as she leaped over Tohru, throwing several knives at him from mid air.

Tohru avoided the attack thanks to the Rabbit talisman's speed. Tempest, who had recovered from Tohru's previous tackle, joined the fight as well by casting lightning bolts at the Japanese giant. Tohru noticed this, and charged at the storm mage once again. However, Tempest was already expecting this, and he covered the floor in ice, causing the apprentice wizard to lose balance, and smashed right into a wall.

Now that Uncle was vulnerable, Fang decided to make her move. She summoned a blue energy dagger, and with flawless precision she tossed it right into Uncle's chest. The old man fell to the floor when the dagger pierced his body clean. Upon seeing the scene, Jade let out a high pitched scream, while Jackie shouted a big "NO!" and rushed towards Uncle. He was about to use the Horse talisman to heal Uncle's injuries before it was too late, but he noticed that there was no injury to heal.

"This is weird," Jade said, "I swear I saw that knife going through his body."

Uncle sat up, and rubbed his head, groaning.

"Uncle, you're okay!" Jackie said in joy as he hugged Uncle. But he only got a two-fingered slap in return.

"Of course Uncle's okay! Uncle's stronger than you give him credit for! One more thing! We're in the middle of a fight, there's no time for hugs or mushy moments!" Uncle replied with his usual abrasiveness.

Pushing Jackie aside, the old chi wizard stood up and said, "I don't know what you did there Wong, but you're going to pay for it!"

Uncle cast his blowfish towards Wong, but nothing came from it.

"What's going on? Is this thing broken?" Uncle pulled out his lizard wand, but the effect was the same.

"So, how does it feel, to lose your magic?" Wong said with a sadistic smile.

"My… my magic…" Uncle stuttered as the meaning of Wong's words sunk in, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

"Oh, it's not so fun when it happens to you, is it? Fang has the ability to strip somebody of their magic power." Wong replied, "Unfortunately, you'll regain your powers in a day or so…that's is, if you get out of here alive, hehehe."

"Hey, Uncle isn't the only one who can use magic! Get ready for the beating of your life, geezer!" Jade shouted.

Wong looked at Jade, and laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, girl. You may have some power, but like I told you before, it's nothing compared to what can I do!"

"Less talking, more blasting!" Jade said as she cast a dark purple energy beam at Wong.

Wong cast a dark chi beam at Jade in response, and both attacks collided. Keeping in mind what happened the last time they had fought, Jade decided to pour every single ounce of her power into that beam, but for some reason, felt that something was blocking her power. Still, she didn't have losing in mind. Wong, on the other hand, noticed that Jade's attack was much stronger than the other time, but wasn't worried about losing against Chan's niece.

Jackie tried to help Jade, but with Uncle and Tohru out of commission, Fang and Tempest set their sights on the archeologist, engaging him into a two versus one fight, where Jackie was clearly overwhelmed.

"Jackie, give me the Horse talisman so I can heal Tohru!" Uncle shouted.

Jackie nodded, took off his bracelet and tossed it at Uncle, who successfully caught it. Despite losing a valuable asset, Jackie's moral didn't diminish one bit in his fight against Wong's minions.

Meanwhile, Viper, who was still fighting Ironfist, noticed her teammates' predicaments, and decided that some help was in order, despite the fact that her own adversary was far from defeated. With a roundhouse kick, she knocked out Ironfist (though she knew that he'd be fine in a moment), and rushed towards Jade, who was the nearest. Using the Dragon talisman, she cast a fire stream towards Wong's energy beam. Jade and Viper's combined attacks overwhelmed Wong's, and the dark chi wizard was blasted away.

However, their victory was short lived, as Ironfist recovered faster than Viper had anticipated, and in a single punch from behind, she was tossed across the room. After getting rid of Viper, the gauntlet-wielding giant of a man looked at Jade.

"You… you're not going to hit a little girl, are you?" Jade asked as she gave a sweet smile.

Ironfist's reply came in the form of a double slam with his metal clad fists that would have pulverized Jade if the Shadowkhan girl hadn't jumped in time. Jade took advantage of her momentum and tried to kick Ironfist in the face as hard as possible. But once again, luck wasn't on Jade's side, as Ironfist grabbed Jade by her ankle, and held her at face height.

"I hit the other little girl pretty hard, so I don't know why you shouldn't follow her," Ironfist said with sadistic glee as he tossed Jade toward a wall with all his might.

Jade screamed for her life as she flew at an amazing speed towards one of the chamber's walls, forgetting that she had the Dog talisman. Jade closed her eyes, knowing that she couldn't do anything but wish with all her strength for some miracle to happen before her head hit the wall…

…But that moment never came. Confused, Jade opened her eyes, and much to her surprise she found herself floating in mid air.

"I'm flying? I'm flying!" Jade said, completely excited, "It's like having the Rooster talisman, but without the talisman!"

It was time to decide what to do next. From her position, she could see Fang and Tempest helping Wong to recover, Jackie dealing with Ironfist, and Uncle using the Horse talisman to heal Viper's injuries.

"This battle is already lost. We must retreat!" Uncle said, as he finished healing Viper, who rubbed her head as she stood up.

"What? But we can't go now! I'm starting to discover my powers!" Jade complained as she landed.

"Jade, if we keep fighting, we will lose and Wong will get all the talismans. Wong getting new, stronger minions is something we didn't anticipate," Jackie tried to reason with her.

"Yes, but if I summon the Shadowkhan, it will balance things out!" Jade tried with all her might to summon the Shadowkhan, but they didn't appear, "Come on! Go, go, Shadowkhan! Shadowkhan, I choose you! Shadowkhan, where the hell are you!?"

Using the Rabbit talisman once again, Tohru picked everybody up between his arms and exited Wong's fortress at an imperceptible speed.

"They escaped," Tempest said. Then he turned at Wong and said, "I'm sorry master. We failed you."

"No, you didn't," Wong said. "Maybe you failed to get the remaining talismans, but you defeated Chan and his allies, which is more than my previous dark chi warriors managed to achieve. I'll be in my library. Do not disturb me under any circumstances."

His three warriors bowed in respect as the dark chi wizard disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

It was time for more research. Over the course of a few days, Chan's infant niece had grown much more powerful since their last encounter in Section 13. He knew that the good chi wizard wasn't training her for sure. The question was, where did she get such an amazing power? Wong wouldn't rest until knowing the answer.

**[1]: Did you ever notice how Jackie was so wary and suspicious of Viper all the time, yet he had no trouble accepting Tohru, who did far worse things than her? Yeah.**

* * *

**Author's note: First of all, le me announce you that the Project Dark Jade has its own TVTropes page! So I'd ask everybody who visits that page to edit it, adding new tropes and expanding the existing ones, among other things, to make it more complete. I believe this will be an important tool to draw more people to the Project, and thus to the creation of new Dark Jade stories.**

**Also, many thanks to The Literary Lord for creating a TVTropes page for this story, despite being still in its early stages. So I also encourage all the fans of this story to edit that page as well. I hope this story will be good enough to be worth of having its own page there.**

**And once again, thanks to all the people who support this story via reviews and favorites! Chapter 5 will be up next week as usual. And for my own amusement, let's hype the expectations for the next chapter: In the next installment of Sahdows Awakening, The Queen of Shadowkhan makes her debut! And Tarakudo! And a new villain that will change the course of this story completely! While you wait, remember that there are two new TVTropes pages in need of editing ;) See ya!**


	5. Ghosts of the Past

**Chapter 5: Ghosts of the Past**

The J-Team had to return from China empty handed. Wong still had the ring of Kur-Asan, four talismans, and a new set of more powerful and deadly dark chi warriors, making him once again a threat to the world. Still, they didn't have to worry about finding Wong – the dark chi wizard wanted the talismans more than anything, and said talismans were in their possession, meaning that finding Wong wouldn't be a problem. Sooner or later, he'd show up to steal the remaining talismans.

The fight against Wong's new dark chi warriors had taken a toll on everybody, who went straight to their rooms at Section 13 for a much-needed sleep. Uncle, however, wasn't tired, and decided to do some more "_re-seeearch_", and dragged his unfortunate and tired apprentice with him. Jackie, Jade and Viper fell asleep mere seconds after getting in their beds.

"Wake up, sleepy head!" Jade heard a voice calling her. Oddly, said voice sounded a lot like hers, only slightly distorted.

Jade opened her eyes, and saw that she was no longer in her Section 13 bedroom. She was now in what appeared to be a floating island in the middle of a purple sky. Looking around, she saw plenty of other floating islands, but no way to travel between them.

"What is this place?" Jade wondered.

"Over _heeeereeeee_!" the voice called. Jade saw a figure waving at her.

Jade looked at the voice's direction, and gasped upon seeing herself. Well, not exactly herself – the other Jade had blue skin, solid red eyes, was barefoot, and was wearing a long black and purple dress, maybe a bit too skimpy for a ten year old girl. Jade immediately deduced that this girl was the so-called Queen of the Shadowkhan, what Jade had become after that demonic tattoo corrupted her completely. Two huge tigers, one with white fur and black stripes, and the other with black fur and white stripes, walked around her in circles, constantly growling menacingly.

"Don't be afraid, these _adorable felines_ are only here to make sure I don't do anything funny," the Queen said, and to prove her point, she walked towards Jade. The moment she took a step, both tigers stopped and roared at her. The Queen returned to her initial spot, and the tigers continued walking in circles.

"Now, do you know who I am?"

Jade nodded in response.

"Good, then we can skip the introductions," the Queen said.

"Get to the point. What do you want?" Jade asked, arms crossed.

"Tch, so rude. I'm here to help you," The Queen replied with a large smile.

"Tch. For some reason, I find that hard to believe," Jade said as she raised an eyebrow, "I've watched enough cartoons and read enough comics to know that you want to take over my body. Well, that's not going to happen."

"Oh, that's impossible. Shendu did possess your body. I'm merely another aspect of you. I long to _be_ you. Or better said, I want you to become _me_."

"I still don't see the difference," Jade said, deadpan.

"When Shendu possessed you, you were forced out of your body. When you became me, you were still you, only… different. Think of it as if you wore a different set of clothes. You can change your clothes, but that won't change who you are. That's why you shouldn't be afraid of me."

"You must think I'm an idiot, don't you? Using big and fancy words to make me think that giving you my body is a good thing. Well, I may not get the best grades at school, but I'm smart enough to spot a scam when I see one!"

"I have the impression that you see me as some kind of enemy. Why, Jade?" the Queen said as she tried to make puppy dog eyes (and failed miserably due to her scary red eyes), faking sadness, "Being me wasn't so bad, was it? You didn't have to answer to parents, uncles, or any kind of authority, you were free to do anything you wanted, unrestricted by any kind of moral code, you had an army of ninjas, you had a power that only now are you starting to discover… tell me, what was so bad about being me?"

"Let's see – making a deal with one of my worst enemies, antagonizing everybody, trying to kill Uncle Jackie… did I mention your horrible choice of clothes?"

"What's wrong with my clothes?" the Queen protested as she walked towards Jade, but the guardian tigers reminded her what would happen if she moved.

"I see the Tiger talisman is doing its job just fine," Jade said with a smirk.

"Yeah, another thing I wanted to talk you about," the Queen said, shaking her head, "You should get rid of them. I know for a fact that you're a dog person."

"I like cats too. You don't know me as well as you think."

"Animal jokes aside, get rid of them. You don't see it now, but the Tiger talisman stops you from reaching your true potential. Those fancy jumps and energy blasts are nothing but the tip of the iceberg. With enough effort and dedication, you could surpass both Uncle _and_ Wong. Hell, you could even be as powerful as Shendu! However, as long as you keep that accursed talisman, you'll never reach your potential."

"I'm pretty happy with all the things I can do right now, thank you," Jade said, not buying into the Queen's (probably empty) promises of power, "While it would certainly be cool being able to learn more magic tricks, it won't be worth it if the price to pay is to become you."

"Again, you say that as if it's something bad."

"It isn't?"

"Let's make a deal – you get rid of the tigers, and I teach you how to summon Shadowkhan. You may have forgotten, but I still know how to do that."

"Tempting, but I'm going to pass. I know I can figure it on my own."

"You have no idea of what you're turning your back on," the Queen said with a very unfriendly frown, "But soon, you will. Yes, Jade, I know you. You say you're happy now, but that won't last. Soon you'll take your current powers for granted and something mundane, and seek for more. And then, you will look back at this moment, and realize that I was right about everything."

"That's all? Because I'm already tired of this conversation," Jade said, and faked a loud yawn.

"No, it's not. I have a message for you. Go to the ruins of Shendu's palace. There's something there that may catch your interest."

"And how are you so sure of that?"

"Because it caught Wong's interest as well. And you seek Wong to get rid of me, right? Or better said, _your family_ wants to get rid of me."

"No, I want to get rid of you as well."

"You do? Or do you _think_ you do? Anyway, go and tell your uncles about Wong and Shendu's palace. We will meet again."

And before Jade could open her mouth to reply, she found herself again in her bed inside her Section 13 room.

After the Queen was left alone with her two tiger jailers, somebody, or something, appeared above her.

"So, how did it go, Princess?" The being above her asked. It was the disembodied head of a red skinned demon, with green eyes, a white mustache, and a rather sinister grin.

"Just as I expected, father,"[1] Queen Jade said, "And don't call me princess. I'm a _queen_."

"Back in my time, the king's daughter was called princess, which is what you are," the demon replied with a chuckle.

"Princesses are dumb and helpless. All what they do is get kidnapped so a 'brave hero' can rescue them. Queens are powerful, and are feared and respected. _Which is what I am._"

"My, my, you have quite an ego," the demon said, before laughing at her, "Anyway, back to the important topic, you say everything went as expected, but your face tells me that you weren't very successful."

"I said it went as expected, father, not that I was successful," Queen Jade said with scorn, "I didn't expect Jade to trust me in our first meeting. The next time will be different."

"Next time I will be there too," the demon declared, "I don't know if can trust you to handle such a delicate issue, dear daughter."

"That's an horrible idea. Revealing yourself to Jade will only scare her, which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to do. Be patient. You've been sealed for centuries; I'm pretty sure you can wait a few more weeks."

"Why haven't you taught her to summon Shadowkhan?" the demon inquired, "That would have sped up our plans quite a bit."

"Because Jade isn't an idiot. She wouldn't believe that I'm helping her out of the goodness of my heart. But I know her. She will come back to me. And that will be her downfall… and our rise."

"I hope you're right, my daughter."

…

Uncle wasn't the only one researching. Daolon Wong, intrigued by Jade's new powers, decided to check some books to see if he could find something useful. Before retreating, Jade had tried to summon Shadowkhan, which meant that her power had to be tied to the Shadowkhan in some way. Wong already had control over the demonic ninjas once, but said control proved to be awkward and unstable, and in the end he couldn't hold it for long.

Aiding him in his research was Tempest, one of his new dark chi warriors, the spellcaster of the group. When Wong created him, he had in mind that the storm mage would be something like an apprentice (but not a heir, since Wong intended to live forever).

Thanks to the Ring of Kur-Asan, Wong was able to wish back the lost Demon Archive, an encyclopedia of dark magic he once possessed long ago, before he lost it under already forgotten circumstances. The book had previously been destroyed by the Shadowkhan under Jade's control, but Wong was oblivious to this. It didn't matter anyway, since it was within the ring's power to recover not only lost things, but things that didn't exist anymore.

However, the Ring couldn't grant him the control of the Shadowkhan. Deep inside, the dark chi wizard knew it couldn't be that easy.

"For many centuries, Shendu held control of the Shadowkhan, yet the Shadowkhan weren't his creation. Originally, they were the servants of a race of Japanese demons known as the Oni," Wong said as he read, "Until the Oni were defeated and sealed away by Japanese chi wizards. The means Shendu used to gain control over the Shadowkhan remain a mystery."

"Maybe Shendu fought against these Oni and stripped them of their control of the Shadowkhan, Master," Tempest suggested, while reading another book, "And without the Shadowkhan, the Oni were helpless against their enemies."

"Probably. Demons aren't known for sharing their secrets of power. But then that means that the control of the Shadowkhan can be transferred from one person to another," Wong pondered as more ideas reached his twisted mind, "When I dispelled the magic wards protecting the Section 13 vault, Shendu regained the ability to summon the Shadowkhan. So, supposing that the good chi wizard recast those wards, Shendu's connection to the Shadowkhan is nonexistent once more."

"Then this is the perfect moment to steal the Shadowkhan from Shendu, Master," Tempest concluded.

"Yes. I'll prepare the ritual. With the Shadowkhan at my side, Chan and his allies will have no chances to stop me!"

…

Jade was torn on telling Jackie and the others about her dream. On the one hand, she didn't want to worry them about something when it was probably nothing. On the other hand, there was a by no means small chance that the dream could be true. In the end, she decided to tell Jackie about the dream. Just as she expected, her uncle told her not to worry and that it was probably nothing, but Jade caught some glimpse of worry on Jackie's face.

Jackie suggested going to talk with Uncle, and see if the old man could cast some light upon the mystery. After gathering Viper, they headed for Uncle's shop, where Jade told her dream to the others.

"It's obvious that Jade's dream is genuine. There's something in the ruins of Shendu's palace that the forces of darkness must not have!" Uncle declared, "One more thing! Jade's dream also revealed that the Queen of Shadowkhan still exists! That means that we must get the Ring of Kur-Asan as fast as possible!"

"Did your… alter ego tell you what exactly we have to look for?" Viper asked. Jade shook her head in negation.

Shortly after joining them, Jackie and Jade had told Viper about the time Jade turned into the Queen of the Shadowkhan when she tattooed a demonic symbol on her ankle (in fact, it wasn't even a real tattoo, just a makeshift tattoo Jade did with a water marker). It was hard to believe that the mischievous but usually sweet and goodhearted Jade could turn into somebody that would order her own uncle's execution without batting an eye.

"Still, I don't think Captain Black will provide us with transport to Hong Kong because Jade had a dream," Jackie interjected, "I do agree with you about investigating Shendu's palace, but first we should think of a good reason to go there."

"I just thought of something. Can we trust anything the Queen of the Shadowkhan said? Maybe it's a trap. Imagine that we go to Shendu's palace, find whatever artifact she was talking about, but said item somehow causes her to take over Jade," Viper said.

"Indeed. That's a possibility we can't overlook," Jackie said.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about that. As long as I have the Tiger talisman, everything will be fine. I saw the effect the talisman has on me. That royal wannabe can't do anything," Jade said, trying to relieve some tension.

"Maybe we could go to Hong Kong, look for whatever artifact may be there, but keep said artifact as far from Jade as possible," Viper suggested, "Don't you have any kind of mystic Tupperware to keep a magic object in, if we find it?"

"We have a special box, but I don't know if it'll be big enough," Tohru said with a shrug.

"Then we should make a bigger one!" Uncle declared.

"Alright. I'll talk with Captain Black, and tell him that he have a clue regarding a potentially dangerous artifact in Hong Kong that Daolon Wong is looking for," Jackie said as he headed back to Section 13.

…

Daolon Wong was ready to start the ritual that would make him the new master of the Shadowkhan. In the middle of his laboratory there was a cauldron with all the ingredients needed to summon the dark ninjas. Surrounding him and the pot were his dark chi warriors, who would reinforce the power of the spell. This time, he'd make sure the Shadowkhan would be his, forever.

The ritual began. Wong and his minions began to recite a dark incantation, as the liquid in the cauldron began to bubble and glow.

"Come to me, warriors of shadow. Come to me and serve your new master!" Wong said as he waved his hands over the cauldron.

A single shadow crept towards Wong, as the dark chi wizard smiled to see that the spell was working. He was expecting more shadows to come, but it was a nice start. However, what happened next wasn't expected by Wong – instead of a black clad ninja, a figure wearing nothing but a ragged black cloak, floating above the floor, like a ghost or a wraith, emerged from the shadow. It was completely black, except for two glowing red eyes.

"So… that's a Shadowkhan?" Fang asked, not sure about what to think of what her master summoned.

"Doesn't look too tough," Ironfist added.

"Yes, I am a Shadowkhan… but no, I'm not the kind of Shadowkhan you were expecting," the black wraith said, as if reading Wong's mind. Its voice was deep and sounded distorted, vaguely resembling Shendu's voice, "And my kind and I have enough power to cover the world in a perpetual darkness."

"You are not a Shadowkhan! Shadowkhan don't speak, they only do their master's bidding!" Wong exclaimed.

The wraith snorted with contempt, "You claim to know of us, wizard, but the truth is you know so little…"

"What's the meaning of this? _What_ are you?" Wong asked in frustration.

"I already told you, I'm a Shadowkhan. And, like you, I was a wizard who made a deal with a demon, only to be betrayed afterward. I know you, Wong, since that time you used this same sloppy spell to summon the ninjas… and I have been watching, waiting to meet you again.

"You may think of Shadowkhan as a group of ninjas, but that's only one of the many forms we can take. And no, not all Shadowkhan are mindless pawns. Some of us have a mind and a will of our own. Like that little girl that is with your enemies. In fact, it was her who sparked your interest in the Shadowkhan again, am I right?"

Wong was speechless. This dark spirit knew too much to be ignored. The tone he used when speaking denoted a great wisdom. Still, the dark chi wizard would be a fool if he bought everything the wraith said. No, the incident with Shendu would not happen again.

"You say you know of the Shadowkhan, that you _are_ a Shadowkhan. But how can I know that what you claim is true? How do I know you are not merely using me to further your own goals?"

"You don't know. But the reason I'm offering you power is because it's of no use to me, and you, being a dark wizard like my brethren and I, would make a fine heir to our power. Still, if you don't believe me, I can give you proof that what I say is true.

"Travel to Hong Kong, to the ruins of Shendu's palace. In an underground chamber, the dragon held the secret of his power over the Shadowkhan – a magic mask. But be careful; do not, under any circumstances, put that mask on, or you will lose yourself. That mask is one of the many keys to control the Shadowkhan. Bring that mask back here, and you'll prove your worth. Only then, will I reveal to you my identity, as well as the keys that will open the door to the greatest darkness ever.

"Lastly, if you need to contact me, use a different method," the wraith said, "That sloppy spell you used before could have unsealed the very same demon who betrayed me."

"And how I am supposed to do that, phantom? I don't even know your name!"

"Phantom… I like it. You can call me The Phantom for the moment. When you have the mask, call me by that name, and I will return to you. One last thing – beware the little girl. She's a greater threat to both of our plans than you may think."

The Shadowkhan ghost then vanished into a nearby shadow.

"So… which are your orders, master? Shall we go to Hong Kong?" Tempest asked.

Wong thought about it for a moment before finally answering.

"We can give it a try. We won't lose anything inspecting the ruins of Shendu's palace. But we will be prepared in case of it being a trap."

**[1] So you're probably wondering why Queen Jade called Tarakudo (You probably guessed who was even if I avoided mentioning him for the sake of the narrative, since hiding his identity wasn't important) "Father". You see, since the Mark of Tarakudo (and thus Tarakudo himself indirectly) was responsible for the creation of the Queen of the Shadowkhan, that means that Tarakudo is Queen Jade's creator, that is, her father, in a metaphorical sense.**

* * *

**Author's note: I know this chapter was shorter than usual and it had no action, but as you could see it was quite important, as it set in motion future events. So here's something that will make you happy: since this chapter was so short, and I'm going ahead of my writing schedule, next week I will upload TWO chapters! No, your eyes don't deceive you. Chapter Six will be this Tuesday, and Chapter Seven will be uploaded next Friday. Those two are very important chapters, especially the latter, so I want to upload them soon.**

**So next Tuesday, the J-Team and Wong's forces will fight for the first Oni Mask! Will our heroes win this time, or is Wong too powerful for them now?**

**Once again, I'd like to thank to everybody who has reviewed or favorited this story, as well as all the people who worked on the TVTropes page of both this story and the Project Dark Jade. And please, don't forget to leave a review with your thoughts on this chapter, the whole story, or predictions of what may happen in the future! See ya!**


	6. Ancient Legacy

**Chapter 6: Ancient Legacy**

"You know, given the number of times we go to China, we should build a HQ there, don't you think?" Jade asked.

Jade, as well as her two uncles, Tohru, and Viper were once again inside a plane flying to the most populated country in the world, which was also the homeland of the former three.

"I know it's a bit late to ask, but what do you think of Jade's dream?" Tohru asked his master, "Will we find something of interest there?"

"Shendu collected artifacts of great magical power. Daolon Wong probably wants one or more of them to gain the upper hand in his fight against us," Uncle replied, sure of his answer. Then he scowled at his apprentice, and asked, "You didn't forget the magic container, did you?"

"No, sensei. It's right here," Tohru said as he pointed to a large chest-shaped object covered in a sheet.

"Do you think we can beat Wong's new dark chi warriors? Because they easily defeated us last time, and Wong wasn't even that involved in the fight," Jackie asked, a bit worried. He had the feeling that this was a suicide mission.

"I've never seen you retreating from a challenge before, babyface. Are you scared?" Viper asked with a teasing smile.

"Only you would take such a grave situation like this one as if it was nothing," Jackie said with a bit of contempt.

"Relax, handsome, it was a joke. You know, to relieve some stress, that's all," Viper replied, keeping her smile.

"The thing is, nothing has changed since the last time we fought Wong. How are we going to defeat him?"

"Easy. Last time they got us by surprise, but now we know what his new minions can do," Jade said, "The big guy with iron hands is super strong, the woman with the blades can lock our magic, and the guy with the hat casts lightning and wind. We only need to devise a strategy based on that."

"Well, it should be obvious that Uncle, Tohru and Jade should be kept away from the woman," Viper said. She then looked at Jackie and added, "That means that it's either you or me. Or if you want, both."

"I was the only one who fought against her before, so I think I should take her on. I believe I can defeat her."

"Uncle will deal with Wong. Nobody else can match his new power now. And Uncle is not even sure if he can," the old man said.

"Then I'll go against the storm wizard. I think I'll have a better chance against him than the iron-clad behemoth," Viper said.

"Then that means that I have to fight him?" Tohru asked, not pleased at all with the idea.

"Don't worry Big T, I'll be there to cover your back!" Jade said as he jumped on the Japanese giant's shoulder.

"Don't forget the ring," Jackie reminded everybody, "That's what we want from Wong. Everything else is secondary."

Jackie was expecting his uncle to slap him and yell something along the lines of "The ring is not important, whatever artifact Wong is looking for is!", but Uncle silently nodded in response. It was good to know that the old chi wizard hadn't forgotten about Jade and her condition in the middle of this madness.

After the plane landed in Hong Kong, the group of five got off and headed to the city's outskirts, where Shendu's palace was the last time they were there.

Jackie and Jade both had thought that the leftovers of Shendu's palace would be a warning about what was in store for whatever evil force tried to take over the world. There was a reason Shendu was nicknamed "The Ultimate Darkness", yet he fell to the skill and bravery of a regular archeologist, the cunning of a ten year old girl, and the intellect of an antique-store owner. Yet it had the inverse effect – like Uncle had predicted, Shendu's defeat did nothing but encourage others to carry on his legacy or take his place.

After a long trek, the J-Team arrived at the ruins of Shendu's palace.

"Okay, here we are. Hope we haven't arrived too late," Jackie mused.

"No," Uncle said as he began to shiver, "Uncle has the willies! Wong is close!"

Warned by the old chi wizard, the group rushed to the basement of the palace, hoping to find Wong before it was too late.

Meanwhile, under Shendu's palace, Daolon Wong and his three warriors traveled through the maze that was the palace's basement. Tempest had summoned a ball of lightning to provide some light, while Ironfist and Fang were looking for possible traps that could harm their master, or to a lesser extent, themselves.

Wong had the Phantom's words in mind; the mask, or whatever Shendu had used to summon and control the Shadowkhan, would be a dangerous artifact. Still, Wong was confident in his abilities – he was the Darkest Mage, after all, and such a title isn't something you get by accident. Still, his many defeat at the hands of Chan and his allies certainly took away some respect for the title.

Finally, they arrived at a chamber filled with gold coins, precious gems, and other riches that would make anybody drool. But not Wong, since mundane treasures weren't of his interest. Instead, he directed his attention towards the chest in the middle of the room.

"Ironfist, open that chest, now!" Wong ordered, impatient to see its contents.

As expected, there was an ugly, demonic red mask frozen in a grimace inside the chest. Wong could sense some sort of inhuman dark chi coming from the mask. He wasn't sure, but guessed it was an Oni. The Phantom had advised against putting that mask on for a reason, after all.

"We've got it. Should we go back to our castle, master Wong?" Tempest asked.

"No. I want to try something first," Wong said, grinning as he held the mask in front of him.

Wong levitated the mask in front of him with telekinesis, and waved his hands while whispering a dark incantation. Shadows began to crawl towards him, and several Shadowkhan came from them.

"Yes! This item is the key to summon and control the Shadowkhan! Shendu's secret is now mine!" Wing said triumphantly.

Unbeknown to Wong and his minions, the J-Team was just behind them in a corridor, and they had seen and heard what Wong did and said.

"Ayaaaah! Now Wong can summon the ninjas! We have to take that mask from him, now!" Uncle said in a loud whisper.

"I know! Viper, can you distract them?" Jackie asked the former thief.

"Leave that to me," Viper said as she reached for something in one of her many bags, and pulled out two small spherical objects. She threw them into the room, and they exploded upon impacting the floor, leaving the room full of smoke.

"What…?" Wong asked in confusion.

"Jackie, now!" Viper yelled.

The archeologist rushed through the clouds of smoke, and managed to snatch the mask from Wong's hands, causing all the ninjas to vanish. Jackie was going to hide inside the cloud of smoke to make a better escape, but Tempest cast a powerful wind that dispelled the smoke.

"I'msorryI'llbringitbacklaterthankyoouuuuu!" Jackie said as he tried to run, "Actually no, I don't plan on bringing this back, sorry!"

Wong waved one of his hands, and Jackie found himself floating, still trying to run. The dark chi wizard used telekinesis again to recover the red mask, but still held Jackie in the air in front of him.

"This is the last time you meddle in my plans, Chan!" Wong said as his eyes turned burning red.

Fortunately for Jackie, before Wong could burn the archeologist with his heat vision, he was blasted away by a green chi energy beam. Jackie fell to the floor.

"Thanks Uncle! That was close!" Jackie said.

"Uncle has better things to do than saving your butt!" the old man replied in his usual abrasive tone.

Ironfist and Fang were going to attack Jackie, but they were intercepted by Viper and Tohru, and engaged in a fight. Tempest was helping his master to get on his feet, and check how much Uncle's attack had damaged him.

"What are you doing? Go and kill the Chans! And bring me the talismans!" Wong barked.

Tempest quickly gave a polite bow, and joined the fight. Wong was about to pick the mask from the floor, before a purple blur passed in front of him, taking the mask away.

"What?!" Wong asked, furious, as he looked around.

"Looking for this?" Jade asked, now in her Shadowkhan form, as she taunted Wong with the mask.

"Jade, go and get out of here, now!" Jackie told his niece.

"But Jackie, you'll need my help to deal with these freaks!" Jade protested.

Before Jackie could reply, Fang leaped over Jade, throwing her two magical daggers at her. Jade was able to dodge them thanks to her enhanced agility.

"The master demands that mask. Give it to Fang, and she'll show you mercy," the woman said coldly.

"If you want the mask, come and get it!" Jade taunted.

Fang summoned two more magic daggers, one in each hand, one red and one blue, and charged at Jade while slashing with her magical weapons. Jade tried to fight, but soon realized that she couldn't do so properly if she had to take care of the demonic mask. She then noticed Tohru knocking Ironfist back in a powerful tackle.

"Tohru, catch!" Jade said as she threw the mask at her giant friend.

Tohru turned to Jade, and saw something red flying at him. He caught the mask easily, but the moment he took a look at the artifact, he froze in place. The sumo recognized what that mask represented perfectly. The very same demons his mother told him about when he was little, capable of eating your soul, among many horrible things – the Oni. That mask was holding one, he knew. That thought only filled his already scared mind with more terror.

"ONI!" Tohru yelled as he threw the mask away and ran.

"Tohru, what is wrong with you?!" yelled Uncle, who had witnessed the whole scene, while trading chi blasts with Wong, "Why did you toss the mask?"

Tempest knew it was his opportunity to seize the mask, but when he was about to catch it, he was blasted away by a fireball.

"I'll be taking this, thanks," Viper said with her usual grin.

"Raaargh! You're just as useless as my old chi warriors! I'll have to do this myself!" Wong said as he turned invisible.

"Viper, watch out! He's using the Snake talisman!" Jackie shouted, trying to warn his teammate.

Viper was aware of this, and stayed alert for any sneak attack. Still, it's nearly impossible to defend yourself from an invisible attack, and the former thief was blasted away by two heat beams, knocking her backwards, releasing the mask in the process.

"VIPER!" Jackie yelled as he rushed to her, hoping to heal her with the Horse talisman before it was too late.

Wong was about to pick the mask up, but the dark chi wizard didn't see Jade's dark chi blast, which had the same effect on him as his eye beams had on Viper. Jade was looking at Wong with her teeth clenched in a murderous expression.

"You're going to pay for hurting Viper!" Jade said, her voice overflowing with anger.

For once, Wong was alarmed. The little girl's dark chi was even stronger than before. Still, he didn't let Jade's threat scare him. Wong fired a dark chi blast, and Jade did the same. Both energy beams collided, Jade's pushing Wong's back. The dark chi wizard used his heat vision as well, pushing Jade's beam back once again.

"The mask, get it!" Wong ordered to whichever of his minions could hear him.

Tempest tried to pull the mask towards him with a wind current, but he was tackled by Tohru, who managed to overcome his fear and catch the mask (though he was unable to suppress a grimace of fear the moment he caught it). Tohru's possession of the mask was short lived, since the second he got it he was drop-kicked by Fang, causing the sumo to toss the mask away, right in the direction of where Uncle was battling Ironfist.

"Ironfist, catch the mask for the master!" Fang warned.

"What?" the gauntlet-wielding man said…

…Right before the mask landed on his face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHH!" Ironfist yelled as the mask fused to his face.

Watching the mask becoming Ironfist's new face was something horrifying to see, even for Daolon Wong, and especially for Tohru, now completely paralyzed by fear.

"Bad day," Jackie said after watching the scene.

"Ironfist you idiot! The Phantom said not to put the mask on!" Tempest chided his teammate as he walked towards him.

But Ironfist's reply was a chill-inducing cackle as he contemplated his body as if he never saw it before.

"Ironfist, take that mask off, NOW!" Wong demanded.

"Let me think about it… no," Ironfist said. His voice sounded deeper and more distorted than his usual, guttural tone.

Wong looked like he was about to explode. "IRONFIST! How dare you defy your master's orders!?"

"Ironfist can't hear you, old man," the masked man said. Then he spread his arms, and from the shadows emerged an army of ninjas, "And you are _not_ my master."

"It is just as the Phantom warned us. The mask has taken control of his body," Fang commented. Then he turned to Wong, and asked, "What are the master's orders?"

"Take the mask off his face! Use any means!" Wong ordered, right before disappearing from sight.

Tempest and Fang nodded, and prepared to face their possessed partner.

"Oh, this is going to be fun. Shadowkhan, make sure their hearts stop beating," then he noticed Jade running towards Jackie and Viper, and added, "But spare the girl. The King still needs her."

Fang summoned a long, glowing green sword, and killed a few ninjas with each swing. Tempest cast lightning bolts that bounced between Shadowkhan.

"I'll create an opening, you go and remove the mask!" Tempest said before frying a Shadowkhan with lightning.

"Fang approves of your tactic," the female warrior said, as she banished her sword.

The storm mage cast a huge barrage of lightning that obliterated all the Shadowkhan near him, and even managed to harm the possessed Ironfist somewhat. Fang dashed towards Ironfist, jumped, and threw two magical daggers at him, one red and one blue, but Ironfist blocked them with his gauntlets. However, this was part of Fang's tactic, since Ironfist now was vulnerable; Fang grabbed him and clung to his neck, and tried to pull the mask off, without any success.

"Get out of my face, bug," Ironfist said as he grabbed Fang by a leg and slammed her against the floor. The woman disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

Tempest was now alone against his brainwashed partner.

Meanwhile, the heroes took advantage of the situation to regroup and plan their next move.

"What the hell happened? What's with that mask?" Viper asked. The thief had recovered from her injuries, but there was a hole in her catsuit that exposed part of her midriff, as well as some burned patches.

"It's an Oni mask," Tohru stammered, "Japanese demons that eat children's souls!"

"Apparently, that mask also gives him power over the Shadowkhan," Jackie deduced.

"That's ridiculous, the mask can't be Oni! All who ever controlled Shadowkhan were Chinese! Shendu is Chinese! Daolon Wong is Chinese!"

"I'm Chinese," Jade interjected, eager to remind everyone that she also controlled Shadowkhan, although briefly. [1]

"That reinforces my point! The Shadowkhan can't be Japanese!" Uncle protested.

"Sorry to interrupt such an interesting debate, but what are we going to do? Because I don't think that Wong's minion can keep him busy for much longer," Viper interjected.

Since Tempest was fighting alone against the Oni-possessed Ironfist and an army of Shadowkhan, his chances of winning were pretty much nonexistent.

"Viper's right. We have to take it off as soon as possible," Jackie said, "But it appears as if it's attached to his head. Uncle, can you use a spell to remove it?"

"Uncle can't create new spells from thin air! Creating new spells takes many hours of research!" Uncle complained in reply.

"Maybe this old tablet could help," Jade said, pointing to a huge stone tablet on the floor that had images of the Shadowkhan on it.

"Uncle can't read this, it's Japanese Kanji! Tohru, translate it!"

"Well, my Japanese is a bit rusty, but let me take a look," Tohru said as he began to read the ancient text.

Ironfist just had defeated Tempest, who vanished in a cloud of blue smoke after the masked hulk crushed him between his two gauntlets. The Oni then turned to the heroes, and grinned wickedly.

"Hurry up, Tohru, we're their next target!" Jackie said.

"Don't be afraid. They're just a bunch of guys in pajamas. Come on, let's buy the big guy and gramps the time they need," Viper suggested.

"I'll go with you too!" Jade said. She wasn't going to be left out of that fight.

The trio engaged the Shadowkhan in a fight. Jackie and Viper fought them in direct combat, while Jade covered them from behind with dark chi blasts. Ironfist was overlooking the fight, deciding when would be the best moment to attack, until he noticed Uncle and Tohru examining the stone tablet on the ground.

"Forget about them! Kill the wizard first!" the masked man roared.

Some Shadowkhan jumped over Jackie and Viper and threw shurikens at Uncle and Tohru. Jackie shouted to warn them, and fortunately he was heard in time, as Tohru picked his master up and dodged the deadly ninja stars with the Rabbit talisman's super speed. Viper used the Dragon talisman to incinerate the Shadowkhan between her and the two chi wizards.

"I think that divide and conquer isn't going to work. I'll have to kill you first, then!" Ironfist said as she charged against Jackie.

Meanwhile, Tohru and Uncle resumed their study of the stone tablet.

"Okay… here, it says that that a long time ago, a group of chi wizards used a spell to trap nine Oni inside nine masks. The key ingredient used to trap this Oni was… Japanese steel."

"Aiyaaaaaah! Where are we going to find Japanese steel in Hong Kong?" Uncle shouted as he gripped his head with his hands.

Jade overheard what Uncle had said, and had an idea. She scanned the crowd of Shadowkhan until she found one that was holding a katana. She leaped above the sea of ninjas and landed in front of the one with the katana. She kicked the sword out of his hand and caught it expertly.

"Uncle, use this!" Jade said as she threw the sword at her elderly uncle. The old chi wizard yelled at the sight of the deadly weapon flying at him and ducked in time. The katana stabbed against a wall, but not before cutting some of Uncle's hair off.

"AIYAAAHH! Are you insane!? Are you trying to kill Uncle!?" The chi wizard said as he shook his fist at Jade in anger.

Jade blew a raspberry at him, "You're welcome, you ungrateful prick! Don't call me next time you need to find a rare ingredient!"

Jackie would have chided Jade for such disrespect towards Uncle if he weren't fighting the possessed Ironfist, while Viper dealt with the remaining ninjas. The possessed dark chi warrior was trying to crush Jackie with his ironclad fists, but Jackie was too fast for him.

"Don't move, so I can crush you!" the Oni yelled.

"That's not a good incentive for me to stop moving," Jackie said in a mocking tone.

Ironfist yelled as he delivered another blow with all his might, and not only did he fail once again, but his fist got stuck in the floor. The masked hulk tried to pull his fist out to no success. Jackie knew that this was his chance to strike, and delivered a rapid succession of punches towards the dark chi warrior's face, finishing with a back flip kick that released Ironfist's fist from the ground, and made him stumble backwards. But before he could regain his balance, Viper and Jade dive kicked him at the same time, the combined strength of both girls hurling him backwards against a pile of rocks.

"Man, that was awesome! We make such a great team!" Jade said as she pumped her fist.

"Uh… don't celebrate yet," Jackie said, pointing at Ironfist, who was back on his feet again.

"It's funny how easy you forget that there's nothing to keep this guy down for long," Viper said with a nervous chuckle.

"RAAARGH! I'm going to tear your heads open and feast upon your brains!" Ironfist shouted in an extremely angry tone before charging at the trio.

"You're going to do nothing, demon!" Uncle shouted back.

The old chi wizard was sitting on Tohru's shoulders, and the sumo was holding a katana that glowed green. Uncle recited an incantation other than his usual one, and Tohru swung the sword, releasing a green energy beam that hit Jackie. Jackie's hands started to glow with a green light.

"Jackie, you can remove the mask now!" Uncle said.

"Come here and try, little man!" Ironfist taunted as he summoned more Shadowkhan.

"Since you asked so politely…" Jackie said as he dashed at him.

The Shadowkhan quickly moved to intercept Jackie, but they fell prey to Uncle and Tohru's chi blasts. Viper and Jade cast a fireball and a dark chi blast respectively at the masked brute to create an opening, and Jackie leaped at him, and clung to his head just like Fang had minutes ago.

"Let go of me, insect!" Ironfist yelled as he tried to push Jackie away.

Viper and Jade dashed at Ironfist, and delivered a low kick to each of the Oni's legs, causing him to fall like a chopped down tree. With one final effort, Jackie pulled the Oni mask from Ironfist's face. The dark chi warrior instantly vanished in a cloud of blue smoke.

Jade fell on her butt, and switched to human form. "Ugh, I think I've used up all my super strength. I can't barely move."

"Jackie, you got the mask!" Jade cheered.

"Yes. It was lucky that it didn't fall into Wong's hands," the archeologist said.

Suddenly, Jackie was blasted away from behind, much to the others' horror. Viper quickly went to check if Jackie was okay. Fortunately, the Horse talisman had saved him. Daolon Wong appeared before them, and grabbed the mask with his telekinesis.

"I'll be taking this, thank you. Farewell, Chans!" the dark chi wizard said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"AIYAAAAAHH! Wong got away with the mask! Now he'll be more powerful than ever! Why did you let Wong ambush you like that?" Uncle yelled in a tone that denoted concern and anger.

"What I could do? He was invisible! I didn't even know he was still here! Plus, I had other concerns, like that possessed brute trying to crush me!" Jackie said, trying to defend himself.

"Sensei, come here!" Tohru called. The Japanese giant was kneeling over the stone tablet, "This tablet shows that long ago, there was an Oni King named Tarakudo who terrorized Japan with his nine Generals. Each General commanded a huge army composed of a different kind of Shadowkhan. However, the Oni were sealed inside several masks, and Tarakudo was banished to the Shadow Realm. The masks were then hidden around the globe."

"So, there are eight other masks out there. And eight other kinds of Shadowkhan," Jackie said, distressed at such an unsettling revelation.

"So that is Wong's plan! He wants to gather the nine masks in order to have access to the nine tribes of Shadowkhan!" Uncle deduced, "We must immediately find the other eight masks before Wong does!"

"Maybe that's why I can't summon Shadowkhan anymore, since I'm not an Oni," Jade said.

"Don't forget the Ring of Kur-Asan. We still have to cure Jade," Tohru reminded everyone.

Uncle sighed heavily, "So many things to do and worry about. And Wong now has become stronger than ever before. I don't know what can we do to defeat him."

"Cheer up, gramps, I'm pretty sure we'll find a way to defeat him," Viper said, trying to lift the old man's spirits, "We've been through much worse, like that time Shendu altered history."

"Let's go back home. Everything will be better after we get some rest," Jackie suggested.

Defeated, the J-Team abandoned Shendu's palace, hoping that they would never had to return to such a horrible palace.

…

Wong had returned to his fortress in China with the Oni mask. Even if he came out victorious, he felt it was a bitter victory, since it was mostly luck that he captured the mask. Still, that didn't matter, since he now had the key to control the Shadowkhan, and if the Phantom honored his side of the bargain, he'd soon have an even greater power.

"Phantom, I summon you! Come to me!" Wong shouted.

The Phantom appeared from a nearby shadow.

"I see that you retrieved the Oni mask. Congratulations. You're worthy of being the heir of the powerful Order of Shadowkhan Wizards," the Phantom said.

"Save the compliments, ghost. Now tell me all that you know about the Shadowkhan!" Wong demanded.

"A deal is a deal. Okay, where should I start…? Many centuries ago, there was an order of Japanese dark wizards, which I was part of, who created the Shadowkhan to conquer Japan for the forces of darkness, and maybe other countries after that. The creation of the Shadowkhan was easy – all that was needed was a huge amount of dark magical energy. To accomplish such a task, we built the Forge of Shadows, a nexus that connected our world to the Shadow Realm that extracted dark energy that would be used to create Shadowkhan.

"However, using Shadowkhan had a side effect on us, such as mutations, the most prominent being blue skin and red eyes. We stopped being human, and became Shadowkhan as well. We were the Higher Shadowkhan; unlike our minions the Lower Shadowkhan, we kept our own free will, and we had power over them. We didn't miss our humanity, since our new form granted us a greater power and greater affinity with dark magic.

"Still, we didn't have enough power to conquer Japan. Fortunately, we were approached by a race of demons called the Oni, led by their King, Tarakudo, who shared our goal of covering the world in darkness. We shared our secrets with the Oni, but rather than helping us, they betrayed us and stole the secrets of our power. The demonic fools, however, were defeated by Japanese chi wizards and sealed away. Tarakudo was banished to the Shadow Realm, and his nine Generals sealed inside masks, like the one you're holding. Each General had control over a different tribe of Shadowkhan."

"So, I have to find the other eight masks in order to build a massive Shadowkhan army to crush my enemies and sink this world into darkness!"

"You will do no such thing," the wraith said matter of factly.

"_WHAT!?_" Wong barked in shock, "And why not?"

"Because the Oni are our enemies. Gathering the masks will only help them. I sent you to retrieve this mask to prove that what I say is true and because it will help us in our endeavor."

"Then how I am supposed to seize control over the Shadowkhan!?" Wong shouted. He looked like he was about to explode.

"Patience, my good evil wizard. First you need to become a Shadowkhan, like I used to be, or like that little girl. Speaking of which, it's a mystery how that little girl managed to become a Shadowkhan, but it's certain that that demonic backstabber has something to do with it. Anyway, you need to head to the Hidden Shadowkhan Temple. There you will be able to transform into a Shadowkhan, and you will be able to create your own tribe. Once you've done all this, I'll tell you how to find the Forge of Shadows, the source of all Shadowkhan."

"I hope you're not fooling me, ghost. I've been betrayed once, and I'm not going to let that happen again," Wong warned.

It would be a few days before his dark chi warriors would be completely recovered, so the dark chi wizard had some time to get ready in case he ran into Chan and his family again.

Speaking of which, how did they know of Shendu's mask in the first place?

…

Jade opened her eyes, and found herself in that weird astral plane again.

"Ugh, why can't I have normal dreams like everybody else?" Jade mused.

"It isn't obvious? Because you're _not_ like everybody else," another voice said. Jade turned back to see the Queen of the Shadowkhan, surrounded by the two astral tigers, "I know, you didn't get the mask. What a shame Jade, you never lost to that wizard before. Maybe you should allow me to deal with him next time. Perhaps I'll be more successful."

"Tch. That was pathetic. Did you expect me to fall for that?" Jade asked.

"Had to try," the Queen said with a shrug.

"Try something better next time. You insult us both. So, what do you want? Are you going to mock me for our defeat?"

"Of course not. I'm going to tell you where can you find Wong. I hope that you trust me this time, now that I prove that I'm being sincere."

"And why are you helping me, by the way?"

"Tch, it isn't obvious? Wong is as much as a foe to me as he is to you. Defeating him benefits both of us. Anyway, do you want to hear your next destination? Because I know you will love it."

"Shoot."

"How does Hawaii sound?"

…

Jade woke up shortly afterward. For some reason, Wong would go to Hawaii. It could have been a much worse place, like a desert in Mongolia or the frozen tundra of Siberia. Hawaii was a nice place. Maybe that was where one of the Oni masks was hidden. Or maybe Wong only wanted some vacation. Do bad guys take vacation?

Still feeling sleepy, Jade went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face. Then she saw something that left her frozen.

It couldn't be. Her eyes were obviously deceiving her. This was impossible.

Her right hand's fingertips were blue.

* * *

**[1]: Feel the need to point that out, since it was left in the original episode, especially since it didn't contradict Uncle's argument.**

**And the hunt for the masks begins!...except not, it doesn't. That one was the only mask you're going to see in this story. The J-Team will search for some magical artifacts scattered around the planet (because it wouldn't be Jackie Chan Adventures without that), some related to Japanese Mythology, and one related to the Ring of Kur-Asan and the genies. Like Slayer Anderson said, I preferred to create new Macguffins rather than use the older ones. This way the fic is a little bit more original.**

**But don't worry, because in the next installement next Friday, what most of you have been waiting for: Jade finally learns to summon Shadowkhan again! Although this may not be a good thing, since the Queen is slowly taking over, as evidenced by the blue skin. So what will happen next? You'll have to keep reading!**

**And as usual, don't forget to review! And if you are a troper, don't forget to improve the story's TVTropes page (as well as other PDJ pages in need of love). See ya!  
**


	7. Clash of the Shadowkhan

**Chapter 7: Clash of the Shadowkhan**

While Jade, like every other kid her age, loved to be the center of attention, she was starting to get sick of it. She didn't say anything, but both Jackie and Uncle noticed her blue fingertips. The old chi wizard said it was an effect of Jade's dark chi finally becoming more stable, and that it would only be a matter of time until Jade became a Shadowkhan completely. She wondered how much time she had until that happened, and if such a thing happened would she lose herself again, but since she knew of the Queen's existence somewhere inside her, the answer was certain. Well, she still had the Tiger talisman; that had to help somehow.

Jade also shared her latest encounter with the Queen in a dream, where the dark girl told Jade to go to Hawaii. Jackie thought that maybe his niece was using the dreams as an excuse to go on vacation, but Jade swore that she wasn't lying. Fortunately, Jackie decided that Jade wouldn't lie about something like this, so the J-Team's next destination would be Hawaii.

Jade's prediction of Wong being in Hawaii turned out to be true when Uncle's locator spell revealed that yes, Wong was indeed there. Everyone deduced that he was probably looking for the next Oni mask.

"It would be great if all these masks were hidden in other tropical paradises as well," Viper had commented the moment the Section 13 plane landed in Hawaii.

Viper suggested they rent a boat, some wetsuits, and scuba gear, just in case the mask was underwater, and besides, money wasn't a problem since "Uncle Sam was paying". Surprisingly, they also had wetsuits that were sized to fit both Jade and Tohru.

The J-Team was now on a beach of silvery sands on the island of Oahu, as if enjoying some vacation. They had all traded in their usual clothes for something more according to the warm weather of Hawaii – Jackie, Jade and Viper were now wearing a blue swimming trunks, a one piece white and blue swimsuit, and a pink bikini with a white beach wrap, respectively. They were playing with a Frisbee while Uncle and Tohru, both dressed with Hawaiian t-shirts and shorts, worked on a locator spell that would track the next Oni mask, hopefully before Wong could get his hands on it. From time to time, Tohru stole a glance at the trio, wishing he could also have some fun.

Uncle gave his apprentice a two-finger slap before chiding, "Apprentice can't be distracted! We have a lot of work to do!"

The Japanese giant sighed and said, "Yes, sensei."

Uncle's words would turn out to be ironic, since he was so focused on his locator spell that he didn't see a Frisbee flying right towards his face. The toy hit Uncle between the eyes, knocking him back.

"AIYAAAAAAAHH!" the old man yelled in pain.

Tohru helped his master stand up. Uncle didn't know who was the one who hit him, but he heard a female voice saying, "Sorry gramps!"

"Jackie! Do you want Uncle to finish the locator spell!? Then let Uncle work in peace!" the old man yelled as he held his nose in pain.

"But it wasn't me!" the archeologist protested.

"I'll go get the Frisbee," Jade said. However, that was just a pretext to go and talk with Uncle about some issue she had been thinking about lately. Maybe it wasn't the best time given the circumstances, but she couldn't postpone it any longer. She picked up the Frisbee, put on her best smile and said, "Uh, Uncle, I've been thinking… given the new powers I have, maybe you could take me as your apprentice now? I'm pretty sure that such an awesome wizard like you would have no problem with training two apprentices, plus I think it would be good for me to learn to control-"

"Have you lost your mind!?" Uncle shouted, cutting Jade off, completely perplexed, as if Jade had said the stupidest thing in the world, "Uncle is not going to train Jade in the dark magic! Dark magic is like bad seeds, you remove them before they can grow, not water them! Who put that idea in your mind? I'm sure it was Jackie!"

"Hey!" Jackie protested from afar.

Jade looked completely appalled. Did he call her a bad seed? "But… but I thought…"

"Does Uncle look like Daolon Wong to you? Dark magic only leads to disaster! In fact, Jade shouldn't use the dark magic she already has so often!"

Jade stood there, dumbfounded, looking on the verge of crying. Did Uncle had to be so abrasive? A mere "no" would have been enough. Tohru decided to speak, hoping to mend the damage his sensei unconsciously caused.

"Jade, what Uncle wanted to say is that dark magic is a dangerous force that shouldn't be meddled with, since it can result in something terrible, plus it would also worsen your condition," the Japanese giant said, trying to sound as gentle as possible, "Do you understand?"

Jade fought back the tears, and in an oddly calm voice, said, "I understand, Tohru. I don't want to make things worse then they are."

And Jade left. The sumo shot his chi wizard master a cold glare.

"What?" Uncle asked.

Crestfallen, Jade slowly walked back towards Jackie and Viper. Neither of them missed her sadness, mostly because they'd heard Uncle yelling at her.

"Jade… are you okay? Uncle didn't have the right to yell at you like that. I'll talk with him later," Jackie said.

"You shouldn't listen to what that crazy old man said. I think you'd make a great wizard," Viper said, trying to cheer Jade up. When she saw that Jade's mood didn't improve, she added, "I mean it! You're really smart, and most importantly, you have a creative mind. I've seen all the things you did with your magic, and it was quite impressive."

"Thank you," Jade said weakly.

After thinking for a moment, Jackie said something that went against all his principles, but knew it was the only course of action. He kneeled in front of his niece, and said, "Jade, you know what I think about magic, and your interest on the subject. I'd wish you lead a normal life, but after all this time you've been living with me, I've been forced to accept a couple of facts – first is that you will never be happy with a normal life. And second, there's nothing I can say or do that will make you drop your interest in magic. So when all this madness is over and you get back to normal, we'll go to talk with Uncle and we will convince him to accept you as his apprentice. What do you think?"

A smile appeared on Jade's face. "You mean it?"

"Yes, but you'll have to do some things in return. For starters, do your chores without having to tell you, and get better grades."

"Aw, come on, my grades are good enough."

"You barely passed your last math exam!"

"I was fighting a stereotype! That had to count for something!" Jade cried. But when she saw Jackie's stern look, she conceded, "Okay, I'll promise I'll do my chores and get better grades. But you better convince Uncle to train me or else…!"

"Don't worry. I promise I will," Jackie said with a smile.

Jade nodded, and then turned to look at the sea.

"Hey, let's see if we can find something cool in the water, like a shark or a jellyfish!" Jade said, before rushing to the water.

"Nice job there, babyface," Viper said as she put a hand on Jackie's shoulder, "To be honest, I never thought you would approve of her being a wizard. I was expecting you to pat her on the back and spout some generic comforting line, but I'm glad I was wrong."

"Well, I tried to put myself in her shoes. Magic seems to be her passion, just like archeology is mine, and I'd really hate if somebody forbid me from doing what I like the most. Plus, Jade never takes 'no' for an answer. If nobody would teach her magic, she would practice it on her own, like she did so many times already, and one day she could harm herself, or somebody else. So if she's going to practice magic, she may as well have the proper guidance. And I'll be okay with it as long as she uses what she will learn for good."

"You'd make a great dad," Viper commented, before following Jade to the water.

Jackie stood there, smiling happily for a moment, until the possible implications of Viper's compliment sunk in, and said, "Wait, what?"

Meanwhile, not far from where they were, Daolon Wong was hidden in a cave, making the last preparations for his trip to the Shadowkhan temple. He took a look at the Oni mask inside his bag, and remembered his last conversation with the Phantom.

**Flashback – Five days ago**

"_You need to head to the Hidden Shadowkhan Temple. There you will be able to transform into a Shadowkhan, and you will be able to create your own tribe. Once you've done all this, I'll tell you how to find the Forge of Shadows, the source of all Shadowkhan."_

_"I hope you're not fooling me, ghost. I've been betrayed once, and I'm not going to let that happen again," Wong warned._

"_You know that, as somebody who has tasted betrayal as well, I wouldn't do that," The Phantom replied._

"_In any case, where's this Shadowkhan temple you keep blabbering about?"_

"_Long ago, we sailed the vast ocean far to the east until we found an archipelago near the edge of the world, and built our temple there, thinking it was a safe place. Those islands today are known as Hawaii."_

"_I'll go there immediately."_

"_Maybe you should wait until your dark chi warriors are recovered, since you're going to need all the help you can. Reaching the temple is the easy part. Inside the temple live horrors that would make the bravest man lose his mind to insanity by merely seeing them. Plus, it's not that your enemies know the location of the temple, or its existence for that matter. Oh, and don't forget the Oni mask."_

"_Why is the mask so important?"_

"_Because the temple can only be opened by either a Shadowkhan or an Oni, and you're neither, and in my current state I can't open the gates for you. But the mask can be used to open the temple as well. And if you make it out of the temple alive, you will be the first Shadowkhan wizard in more than a millenia."_

**End Flashback**

Wong was ready to look for the temple when the Phantom appeared before him.

"Wong, we have a problem," the ghost said.

Wong scowled. "What is it? I hope it's not that the temple was accidentally destroyed when somebody built an oil rig in its place!"

"The temple is in the exact same place as it was the last time I was there, you won't have to worry about that. No, it's not that. Your enemies are here."

"What!? That's impossible! There's no way they could know I was going to come here!"

"If they are here, it's because they somehow know. I don't know how, but it's imperative to know who or what's feeding them the information. Anyway, if they are here we have to presume that they know about the temple. You must go now."

Wong nodded, and disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

…

Uncle and Tohru were still working on the locator spell while Jackie and Viper played with Jade in the water. The sound of Jade's laugh made the sumo to feel a bit better. He didn't know what Jackie told her, but he was glad that Jade was no longer sad.

"Cod fish scales!" Uncle barked. His large apprentice picked up a bottle and passed it to Uncle, who emptied some of the contents in a cauldron.

"Sensei, I've been thinking… and maybe we should train Jade," Tohru spoke up, afraid of his master's reaction.

"Aiyaaaaaaah! You too, Tohru? It's obvious that the sun has fried your brain, because no sane person would suggest that!" Uncle replied, "Red poppy powder!"

Tohru passed another vial, which Uncle emptied into the cauldron, while stirring its content with a ladle.

"It's not that I want Jade to become a dark sorceress, I want her to be human as much as everybody else… but if we taught her how to control her powers, we could help her in many ways; she'd be more useful in fights, she wouldn't accidentally harm others, and maybe she could better resist the Queen's influence."

"Nonsense. You can't use something evil to do good, therefore neither Uncle – nor you – will help Jade to cultivate her powers. Eel saliva!"

"But sensei-"

"This conversation is over! And I said 'Eel saliva'!"

After pouring the last ingredient, the green liquid in the cauldron revealed an image as if it was a screen. It was the islands of Hawaii as seen from the skies. The image zoomed into the sea area between the island of Oahu and the island of Kauai, a channel named after the latter island. The image finally revealed Wong opening the gates of an underwater temple, located in a water-free cave.

"There's Wong! Come, we have to go there before he gets his hands on the mask!" Uncle warned.

The J-Team rushed to the boat, and set off for the Channel of Kauai. They stopped when Tohru started to tremble.

"Tohru? What's going on?" Uncle asked at his shivering apprentice.

"I've got a feeling...that made me remember when we found the first mask...like a great darkness below us..." The sumo explained.

"Ah, your training as a wizard is finally making you more sensitive to dark magic. Then it has to be somewhere around here," Uncle deduced, and instructed Viper (who was driving the boat) to stop where they were.

They changed into their scuba gear, and got into the water. They dived into the water, and it took no time for them to see a cave in a huge rock structure. The cave was a tunnel that led to a space that mysteriously was completely dry.

"You'd expect this place to be flooded as well. You see plenty of weird stuff traveling around the world," Viper commented as she helped Jade out of the water.

"That's because the evil magic in this place forms a barrier that keeps the water away," Uncle explained.

"So, where do we go now?" Jackie asked, as he helped Tohru out of the water.

"That large door would be a good place to start," Jade said as she pointed to a huge gate made of stone.

The gate was decorated with Japanese kanji and other unknown symbols. On one side of the gate there was an image of an elder Oni in a fighting pose. Opposing him there was an image of a samurai warrior. Jackie tried to push the door open, with no results. Then Viper gave it a try, since she had the Ox talisman, but the result was the same. Then they tried Jackie, Viper and Tohru at the same time, but the gates didn't open. Uncle then examined the gates closely.

"A strong dark chi emanates form these gates. They used dark magic to protect it! No amount of physical strength will open this door. Magic must defeat magic!" Uncle said as he prepared as spell to open the door.

Uncle then tried many spells to open the door, and none of them worked. The dark wards protecting the door were too powerful, and resisted all the spells Uncle cast at them.

"Ugh, the fifth spell that fails. And that was one of the most powerful in the book!" Uncle said in defeat.

"We have to think something. Each second that passes, Wong is closer to getting another mask," Jackie urged.

"It's a pity we didn't bring some explosives to take this door down," Viper commented.

"That wouldn't have worked! Magic must defeat magic!" Uncle protested as usual.

"Yeah, I see that magic is working perfectly right now," Viper replied in an obviously sarcastic tone.

While Viper and Uncle engaged in an argument that Jackie and Tohru futilely tried to stop, Jade sighed and decided to examine the door closely. None of the inscriptions told her anything. She then remembered the Indiana Jones movies, and thought that maybe there was a hidden switch somewhere, and began to feel about the door. However, the moment her hands, or better said, her right hand's blue fingers, touched the door, it opened with a crack, causing the whole chamber to shake. She smiled in satisfaction.

Uncle and Viper stopped arguing, and both them and Jackie and Tohru looked at the open door, as well as Jade, who was standing there with a triumphant smile.

"Hey guys, I opened it!" Jade cheered.

"What… how?" Uncle was dumbfounded.

"I don't know, but I think that I pressed a hidden switch somewhere."

"I can't believe I didn't think of that!" Jackie said, a bit ashamed. He had done that to open dozens of doors during his archeological expeditions.

However, their joy was short lived, as a group of skeletons and zombies, wielding cutlasses and wearing tattered pirate clothes, suddenly appeared and attacked them.

…

Meanwhile, Daolon Wong and his dark chi warriors were already inside the temple, trying to locate its deepest chamber, where a seducing prize waited to be claimed. The Phantom was with them as well.

At first, the dark chi wizard was a bit lost on how he was supposed to reach an underwater location. Teleport was out of the question, since it was a place he couldn't see nor he had been there before. Then he realized that he had the Monkey talisman, and used it to turn himself into a sea creature, and easily reached the temple's entrance. This made Wong wonder why he didn't use the power of the Monkey more often. Wong was simply being prey of the typical dark chi wizard mindset, which valued destructive spells over everything else, regardless of how useful they could be, which caused him to forget about the Monkey as well as the Snake often, only to remember them in critical situations.

Just as the Phantom warned, Wong couldn't move two steps without something ambushing him. First it was a group of skeletons and ghouls. Then a pack of some sort of monstrous reptile or amphibian that looked like a cross between a crocodile and a frog, which was fast and had large and pointy teeth, that also spat corrosive acid. And finally, a swarm of oversized bats with predictable intentions. The temple guardians were no match for Wong and his warriors, but it was starting to become annoying.

"I sense something," the Phantom announced, "Someone just opened the door. This time it was a Shadowkhan."

"Chan," Wong grumbled, "He will catch up with us soon. You could have told these monsters to spare me and focus on him, since not only have we lost time fighting them, but we cleared the path for Chan!"

"First of all, I have no power over the temple in my current state, or else I would have opened the gates myself. And second, the temple will generate additional guardians for Chan. After all, the temple will see him and his friends as intruders as well," the Phantom explained.

…

While scary, the undead group that ambushed them were easily dispatched by the J-Team. They didn't even have to use the talismans, and Jade didn't transform into her Shadowkhan form. Unopposed for now, they walked into the temple. Jackie deviated a little from the group, since he wanted to speak to Viper in private.

"Hey Viper," Jackie called to her. When the former thief was close to him, he asked, "About what we talked before in the beach…"

"What about it?" she asked.

"Maybe it's not my place to ask, but I got the impression that your parents didn't allow you to be what you wanted. Am I right?"

"Partially. Let's just say that they wanted me to carry on their dreams."

Jackie decided to press a bit more. "Do you want to… talk about it?"

Viper gave him a sharp look. "What with the sudden interest in my life, Jackie?"

"Well… it's just that… well, this is a part of you that I don't know about. And I'm pretty sure there are plenty of things about you that I don't know, but this one attracted my attention," Jackie said, a bit embarrassed over the fact that he admitted interest in Viper. That aspect of her life made Viper a bit more sympathetic in Jackie's eyes.

Viper sighed, and looked down while still walking. "Funny thing. I don't remember the last time I talked with somebody about my life. Maybe you're the first one. Okay, how should I start…? When I was four, my parents made me take gym classes. They were hoping that I would grow up to be a medal-winning Olympic gymnast, but the more gymnastics I did, the more I grew to hate it. Which also made me hate my parents as well, even if I didn't want to."

"I was wondering how you learn your abilities," Jackie interjected, "Sorry, continue."

"Well, I also learned some combat moves here and there, but I digress. As you can guess, this drove a wedge in my relationship with parents. All teens rebel against their parents, but I was especially bad. I hated how gymnastics never allowed me to do what I wanted – to be with my friends, to have fun or to eat whatever I wanted. I desired freedom more than anything."

"And what did you want to do with your life? Because if being a thief was your childhood dream, then I'm going to side with your parents."

"No, being a thief came later. My childhood dreams… I don't think I ever had one past having other children's freedom, with my parents forcing gymnastics on me all the time. I'd like to think that my career as a professional thief started during my last year in high school. Our math teacher confiscated one of my friend's walkman and didn't give it back to her at the end of the day as he was supposed to do, so that night I snuck in the school and recovered it from his office. Then I realized what I did, and how much I loved it.

"It was a combination of factors that made me become a thief – the thrill and excitement of the moment, the fact that I was using a series of skills my parents forced on me to do something they surely hated, having an income of money that allowed me to move out and live independently sooner than other teens – even if I didn't have their need for money, since my parents were quite wealthy, but I didn't want to depend on them economically – the desire to test my abilities… first I started robbing pawn shops and grocery stores. Then I went to jewelry shops. Then I robbed millionaires' houses – my parents house included – and finally moved to museums."

"And what made you stop being a thief?" Jackie asked, "Because you aren't a thief anymore, are you?"

Viper laughed at Jackie's last question. "No Jackie, I've told you a million times that that stage of my life is over. And as for what made me change that… that would be you."

"Me?" Jackie said, quirking an eyebrow, "Explain, please."

"When I met you for the first time, my first impression of you was of a complete opposite of me – you were such a naïve goody two shoes lacking any kind of street smarts that it was comical, yet you were as skilled in martial arts as I was, maybe even better. But what I liked about you the most was that you used those abilities for good. It made me realize that I was living a rather petty lifestyle, and that I could do much more, that there was more in life than easy money or the excitement of danger. Well, that and that if I ever got caught, I'd never see the light of the sun again."

"And was that before or after you tricked me with the fake Snake talisman?" Jackie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Viper held her arms up in self-defense. "Hey, I said that you made me realize my mistakes, not that I realized them instantly!"

"I'm glad to know that I was a good influence on somebody," Jackie said, smiling a bit.

Suddenly, the group stopped.

"Look," Tohru said to the group, pointing to the area in front of them, "There was a battle here. And it was recent." Then she started shivering again.

"The hint of a battle plus Tohru's willies mean that we're close to Wong. Let's hurry, maybe we can catch him before he gets his hands on the mask!"

…

Meanwhile, not far from them, Daolon Wong and his minions had arrived at the deepest chamber of the temple. It was a huge room, its walls decorated with symbols that not even someone as intelligent and knowledgeable as Wong could recognize, as well as many books, scrolls and other sources of mystic and arcane wisdom.

"You did it, Wong. You've passed the test," the Phantom congratulated, "Now we only have to-"

"WONG!" a voice shouted as the J-Team broke into the chamber.

"Where is the mask?" Uncle demanded.

"Mask? What mask?" the Phantom asked in a mocking tone, "You came here looking for an Oni mask? Hahaha, within the walls of this temple lies a power far greater than a mere mask."

"I don't believe it, Wong has another servant!" Jade said.

"What are you?" Jackie asked.

"As for now, Phantom is the name my current form deserves. As for my identity, you will find out soon enough. So, I finally get to meet the legendary Jackie Chan, vanquisher of Shendu, as well as the one who defeated the Demon Sorcerers, and who repeatedly kicked my good friend Daolon Wong's ass. Am I right?"

"If you know Jackie you know what's in store for you, ghost!" Jade shouted at him.

"Oh, and the former Queen of the Shadowkhan who comes to claim her lost throne, Jade Chan. Why don't you join us? I think that, under Wong's tutelage, you'd become a great mistress of darkness."

"Nobody is going to corrupt Jade with dark magic!" Uncle said, outraged.

"Why don't you let the girl think for herself, wizard? Besides, she isn't your apprentice or anything, so maybe you should let somebody else train her. Or are you like a dog in the manger? Or maybe you didn't take her as apprentice because she's too much of a free spirit to control, and opted for a more submissive apprentice? Typical of your kind, always seeking control," the Phantom said as he turned at Tohru, who was trembling, visibly scared, "Are you afraid of ghosts, big man? You shouldn't be. I was much more dangerous when I was alive."

"Shut it! You're not going to take Jade away from her family!" Viper shouted. Both Jackie and Jade wondered if Viper considered herself as such.

"…I'm afraid I don't know who you are."

"Viper. Can't say it's a pleasure."

"Viper? What a curious name! Your parents must be fascinating people."

"Less than you think. Although I'm pretty sure you would get along with them."

"Anyway, even if I'd love to stay and talk, my good mate Wong and I are in the middle of something," he then turned at Wong and asked, "The ritual will only take a few minutes, but we can't be interrupted. Can your dark chi warriors hold them until we're finished?"

"They'll do more than that. Ironfist, Fang, Tempest!" Wong called as his dark chi warriors appeared in front of him from a cloud of smoke, "Crush them!"

The J-Team prepared to fight the dark chi warriors, adopting fighting poses, and Jade turned into her Shadowkhan form.

"I don't know what Wong and that wraith are trying to do, but it can't be good! Forget about the dark chi warriors! Stop Wong!" Uncle warned.

However, the dark chi warriors had already been warned by Wong, and didn't allow the heroes to be less than four meters away from their master. Whenever Jackie tried to jump above them, Tempest would catch him in a cyclone and toss him back. Whenever Viper or Jade cast a fireball or dark chi blast, Ironfist blocked it. Whenever Uncle or Tohru tried to cast a spell, Fang was quick to break their concentration with a well-thrown magic dagger.

"Damn it, we can't go past them!" Jackie cursed, as he tried to think his next move.

"I think I have a plan! Uncle, cast a spell on the woman!" Jade said.

"What? But she-" Uncle was about to say.

"No buts! Just do it!" Jade yelled.

Uncle raised his puffer fish and chanted his trademark incantation. Quick as lightning, Fang summoned an anti-magic dagger and leaped above Uncle, ready to incapacitate him. However, before she could throw the magical dagger, Jade leaped towards her as well and roundhouse kicked her in the face, tossing her back. Before she could get up, Viper lifted a nearby stone block almost twice her size and used it to crush the female warrior, who disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

"One down, two to go. Well planned, Jade," Viper said.

"We cannot let them trick us like that again," Tempest said, as he turned to his large teammate and said, "I'll fry them up, cover me!"

Tempest brought his arms upwards, and a black cloud appeared above him. The black cloud began to shoot lightning bolts at the heroes, who were forced to dodge the deadly electric blasts. Fortunately, Tohru, who was hidden behind a column, had a hidden ace up his sleeve. He pulled out his own blowfish and a vial with a red liquid, and poured a few drops out of the vial on the stuffed fish. Then he stepped out from behind the column, and began to chant Uncle's incantation. The cloud shot a lightning bolt at him, but Tohru used his chi blaster to absorb the attack, and redirect it towards Ironfist. The gauntlet-wielding hulk was electrocuted, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Good one, Big T!" Jade said. Then she turned at Tempest and said, "Bet you didn't see that coming, sucker!"

Tempest started to growl in anger at the taunting.

"There's only one warrior left! Come, we have to-" Uncle said, before being interrupted.

"Too late, the transformation is already complete!" Daolon Wong said in a booming voice as he reappeared. The heroes gasped at Wong's new appearance – he now had blue skin, red glowing eyes, and his tattoos glowed with a purple light, "I AM A SHADOWKHAN NOW!"

"Copycat," Jade muttered under her breath.

Wong looked around, and was surprised to see that he could perfectly read and understand all the symbols on the walls. His new power made it possible. They revealed how to create and summon Shadowkhan. The dark chi wizard was about to use that knowledge right now.

"Shadows come and serve me!" Wong called.

"Bad day," Jackie said as he saw several shadows crawling around Wong.

From the shadows, many Shadowkhan emerged, but they weren't the ninjas Jackie and the others were used to seeing. These looked more like wizards, dressed in long grey robes, black cloaks, and a chest plate shaped like the skull of a demon. The only resemblance with the ninjas was their masked faces and red eyes.

"This changes nothing, geezer! Get ready for the beating of your life!" Jade said as she leaped over Tempest and the Shadowkhan, ready to deliver a flying kick to the dark chi wizard. However, she was stopped in midair before she could reach her target.

"You still haven't realized our difference in power, little girl," Wong said as he held Jade in the air with the Rooster talisman, "Maybe this will help you learn how inferior you are compared to me!"

Wong waved his hand backward, and Jade was slammed against the walls of the chamber, much to the heroes' horror.

"JADE!" Jackie yelled as he tried to run towards her, but was blasted away by a purple dark chi beam from one of the Wizard-Khan.

"Jackie! Are you okay?" Viper asked as she rushed to check him.

"Yes… I have the Horse… Jade! We must save Jade! Tohru, lend me your talisman!"

"Don't worry, she's okay, she has the Dog talisman, remember?"

Still, that wasn't enough for Jackie. Dog or not, he wasn't going to leave his niece at the mercy of Wong.

While the Dog talisman hadn't blocked the pain of the impact, it did prevent any kind of injury. Jade stood up a bit dizzy, and stared at the symbols on the wall. For some reason, she could understand those symbols, although it wasn't that she could read them, more like… the symbols talked to her, sharing with her secrets of power. Soon, Jade realized that she had the key to defeat Wong at hand. However, before she could use her new skills, a blue blur caught her and took her out of the chamber. It was Jackie.

"Jackie, let me go! I can defeat him!" Jade said as she squirmed in Jackie's grip.

"No Jade, it's too dangerous! We must get out of this place, there's no way we can win against Wong now," Jackie said, hoping that Jade would understand.

Uncle, Tohru and Viper appeared shortly after, running from dark chi blasts, following Jackie's path. Uncle paled when he saw where his nephew went.

"Jackie, you went right into a dead end!" Uncle shouted in horror.

Jackie turned around and realized that they were in another chamber with no other exit but the one that they had used to enter, which was now blocked by Wong's Shadowkhan.

"Way to go," Jade and Viper deadpanned in unison.

The Wizard-Khan moved aside to let Wong pass.

"So, I think this is the end for you, my hated nemesis. Any final words?" Wong asked.

"Yes!" Jade said as she broke Jackie's grip, and elevated into the air, "Your bones better be insured, because they're about to suffer some serious damage! Shadowkhan, rise!"

Five shadows crawled towards Jade, and five humanoid figures emerged from them. They were blue skinned women with white hair tied in a ponytail, with two bangs at each side of their faces, wearing a short black kimono with a grey belt covering their waist, thigh-high boots, a mask that hid their eyes behind an V-shaped red visor, but revealed their mouths. In their hands, they each carried a kusarigama. [1]

"Shadowkhan, attack!" both Jade and Wong said in unison.

The Kunoichi-Khan charged at the Wizard-Khan, who cast a barrage of dark chi blasts, but the female Shadowkhan easily dodged the beams, and quickly reached them. Then, Wong had to watch in frustration as Jade's Shadowkhan wiped the floor with his wizards, despite being outnumbered. The female ninjas skillfully used their kusarigamas to immobilize the wizards or prevent them from casting spells, and quickly destroy them with a quick slash of the sickle.

"It's over, Wong. Now surrender!" Jade said.

"Never! You may have defeated my Shadowkhan, but in the end, I'm still the winner this day!"

The dark chi wizard then used his heat vision against the roof, provoking a rain of rocks and debris that blocked the entrance of the chamber.

"Enjoy your underwater tomb!" Wong laughed before disappearing.

"Aiyaaaaaaahh! Wong is trying to bury us alive!" Uncle yelled in panic.

"Don't worry, that old geezer underestimated my abilities again. Girls, take us out of here!" Jade commanded.

The five kunoichi grabbed one of the heroes each, and pulled them into the shadows, taking them out of the chamber before it collapsed completely, and left them in the relatively safety of the beach they had been on some hours ago.

…

The next day, the J-Team returned to San Francisco, not knowing what to think about the events that transpired in Hawaii. Wong had managed to become a Shadowkhan and had created his own tribe. If it weren't for Jade doing the same, then they would have perished there.

Apparently, Wong wasn't after the Oni masks… for the moment. This only raised more questions as to what his goal could be this time. Then there was also that ghost that was accompanying him.

…

Jade was in her room at Section 13 when somebody knocked on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing Tohru.

"Hi Jade. I wanted to talk to you about something," the Japanese giant said, "First of all, I wanted to thank you for saving our lives in Hawaii. Also, I wanted to apologize for what Uncle said to you when you asked him for training."

"It's okay Tohru. And you don't have anything to apologize for."

"You proved Uncle wrong. It was thanks to your Shadowkhan that we are now alive. And even if he forbids it, I want to tell you that I'm willing to train you if you want. Well, we'll have to keep it a secret, because if Uncle find about this…"

"No Tohru, it's not necessary," Jade said, smiling tenderly, "I don't want you to be at odds with Uncle. But thanks a lot for the offer. It means a lot to me."

"Are you sure?"

"Completely. Now, I don't want to sound rude but… I'm really tired and I want to go to bed now."

"Oh, sure, alright. Good night, Jade."

"Good night, Tohru," Jade said as he watched the sumo leave.

When she was finally certain that she was alone, she turned into Shadowkhan form and summoned three of her Kunoichi-Khan. The three of them were carrying in their arms a pile of books and scrolls, full of dark magic knowledge. She instructed her minions to leave the temple's loot on a chest, and dismissed them with a wave of her hand. The kunoichi gave her a polite bow before disappearing again into the shadows.

Shortly before leaving Hawauu, Jade snuck away from the others and returned to the Shadowkhan Temple via shadow travel with her kunoichi. She told her minions to gather all the scrolls, books and texts they could carry, and to wait until Jade called for them.

"No, I won't jeopardize Tohru's future as a chi wizard by making him train me. Plus, in my current state, there's little he can teach me," Jade said as she contemplated the books and scrolls in front of her.

There was an old saying that it was always darkest before the dawn. Every time they clashed, Wong become more and more powerful, and their chances of defeating him, and thus the key to saving Jade from a terrible fate, was further each time. She has seen it today; if they wanted to defeat Wong, she'd have to tip the scale in their favor by becoming stronger. Jackie and Uncle couldn't beat Wong by themselves, not anymore. They needed her now more than ever, even if they didn't realize of that.

Jade had to dig deeper into the darkness if she ever hoped of seeing another dawn in her future.

**[1]: A Japanese weapon composed of a sickle on a metal chain with a heavy iron weight at the end.**

* * *

**So, here you have, both Jade and Wong finally learned to summon Shadowkhan of their own! I know that most of you already saw them, but I've got a link to a picture of the two new Shadowkhan in my profile, in case you're interested. Oh, and due to popular demand, I also made a drawing of the new Dark Chi Warriors.**

**This was one of my favorite chapters to write. It had everything: action, exposition, character development, Jackie and Viper becoming closer, Viper in a bikini XD...the only thing I wasn't happy with was Uncle. I think I wasn't fair to him, and that he was more of a jerk than he is in the show, even if his reaction towards Jade's request wasn't unjustified or out of character. Guess that it's up to you to judge that. So, next Friday, the hunt for three artifacts of the Japanese Lore finally begins! Will the Chans win for once, or now that Wong can summon Shadowkhan their chances of winning are lower than ever? **

**Again, thanks a lot to everybody for supporting this story via favorites and reviews, and to Zim'sMostLoyalServant for both his work as a beta and the TVTropes page (I don't think I can thank you for this enough). And don't forget to leave your thoughts on this chapter or the story as a whole in a review. Until next friday!**


	8. The Sword, the Snake and the Sorceress

**Chapter 8: The Sword, the Snake and the Sorceress**

Jade thought that, with all that ancient knowledge on her power, she'd become a very powerful sorceress in no time. She soon realized how wrong she was.

When she decided to take a look at her mystic goodies, she realized that they were in many languages, some of which she did understand, like Chinese or that weird Shadowkhan language. Others, on the other hand, were written in Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Persian. That meant that about only half of her material was of any use to her. It struck her as odd at first that the Shadowkhan would have members from so many different places, but she soon found some of the spells contained within were either good or neutral chi magic, which were probably stolen during battles or raids.

Yet when she finally started reading what she could understand, she found yet another obstacle – she lacked any kind of item to cast magic, like Uncle's blowfish and lizard, or Daolon Wong's wand. She couldn't ask Uncle and Tohru for one, the former for obvious reasons and the latter because she didn't want to get him in trouble.

Fortunately, Jade learned that there were many more ways to cast spells than waving a magic wand and reciting an incantation. For example, music could be used to cast spells as well, which was apparently a popular method among the Eight Immortals, given that three of them had a musical instrument as a symbol. Jade discarded this option, since she didn't have the time nor the patience to learn to play an instrument – though she was taught to play the flute at school's music class, she didn't have the necessary skill to use magic music. Other methods consisted of tattooing magical symbols over your body, but she also discarded that one, for obvious reasons. And she definitely wasn't going to use her own blood as a catalyst for spells. She remembered the animated Lo Pei statue when she read about using ofuda [1] to cast spells, and decided to put that one in her "maybe" list.

She was about to give up when she saw something that caught her attention. There was a method that was very popular among Japanese chi wizards of both sides of the morality spectrum – Hand Seals.

"People actually used this? I thought this only appeared in anime about ninjas," Jade said, and continued reading.

It was possible to cast spells using a series of hand gestures at the same time you build your chi and released it at the right moment. There were many combinations of hand seals listed there for each spell, but Jade knew that she could create more by merely creating new combinations. It also had other advantages regarding other methods, such as the fact that it didn't need an additional item – if Uncle or Tohru lost their dead animals, they would be unable to do any magic other than potions.

Jade decided that she had read enough, and decide to go to bed. Then she realized of something that was quite ironic.

"Wait a minute, did I study by my own will? Well, guess that there's a first time for everything."

…

Meanwhile, in China, Wong was overseeing his minions sparring. Each of his three dark chi warriors was fighting against a small group of Wizard-Khan, the former gaining the upper hand in the fight. Wong had a sour memory of how Jade's Shadowkhan had wiped the floor with his after the little girl was able to summon them. The dark chi wizard thought that maybe they died when he trapped them in the Shadowkhan Temple, but shortly after that he realized that Jade's Shadowkhan could take them from there easily.

"I need to make my Shadowkhan stronger if I want to crush the Chans," Wong muttered to himself, not taking his eyes from the fight.

"It's not that your Shadowkhan are weak," the Phantom said, appearing behind him, "You only need to use them properly. Your mages are powerful, but they are not made for hand-to-hand combat, they will do great as long as you keep them from direct confrontation. And Jade's kunoichi were specially made to kill magic users."

"How was she able to do that?" Wong asked, irritated.

"You see, the Shadowkhan are much more than mere minions; they're avatars of our inner darkness, and everything about them, such as their appearance or abilities, is a reflection of their creators. Take your Shadowkhan for example – they're wizards, just like you are, and they have an appearance that could be described as 'scary', a reflection of your dark and twisted mind. Then take a look at Jade's – they're female, just like her, they're warriors, possibly reflecting her passion for martial arts and fighting, and as for their… talent for killing mages, Jade needed something to defeat you and your wizards, so the Temple made them as such."

"The Temple helped her!? How?"

"She's a Shadowkhan as well, and the Temple helps all the children of shadow. I was right about the girl being a major obstacle for our plans, that's why I tried to sway her to our side. Anyway, I knew that she wouldn't join us, but I had to try. Our methods to recruit apprentices back in the day were far more effective."

"Let me guess, you took children away from their homes and families, am I correct?" Wong guessed, amused at such a horrible act.

"Of course not! Taking somebody against his will carries more trouble than what it's worth. No, what we did was to strip them of everything. After our scouts spotted a promising apprentice, he would lose his family and home in something made to look like an accident, like his house burning down, or their parents would be framed for being conspirators and executed by the government. Then, we would let the child sink in his misery for a few days, in order to make him more vulnerable – but always watching that nothing harmful happened to him; we lost quite a few good apprentices thanks to incompetent scouts – and finally, his future master would approach him and offer him apprenticeship. Without a home and family, the child would have no other options but to accept."

"I see that you had no problem with committing vile and atrocious acts when it came to reaching your goals," Wong said. Judging by his tone, he obviously meant it as a compliment.

"That's what defines us, isn't it? And speaking of goals, it's about time to reveal your next one."

"To open the Forge of Shadows."

"Indeed. Only two people in the entire world can open the Forge – the King of the Shadowkhan and the Dark Champion. The King of the Shadowkhan is Tarakudo, the demon who betrayed me and is sealed in the Shadow Realm, so that's not an option."

"Alright, then where can I find this Dark Champion, if it still exists?"

"Actually, anybody can become the Dark Champion. All that they need is the Dark Champion Regalia: The Sword of Kusanagi, the Mirror Yata no Kagami, and the Jewel Yasanaki no Magatama. They're hidden-"

"Wait a minute!" Wong interrupted the Phantom, "Those are the Three Scared Treasures of Japan! They're artifacts of the forces of good!"

"Let me correct you – they _were_ artifacts of the forces of good. Not anymore, after the first and only Dark Champion stole them and corrupted them with his own chi. Anyone who holds these three items will be the Dark Champion of the Shadowkhan. And as I was saying before you interrupted me, they are hidden in three places across the world. You should start with the Sword of Kusanagi, kept on an island to the south of the Sea of Japan. You must-" the Phantom said before suddenly shutting up.

"What? What's going on?" Wong asked.

"I think I've found our little spy. Sadly, she has already transmitted the location of the Sword of Kusanagi to the Chans. You must be quick and retrieve the sword before them. Meanwhile, I'll take care of the spy," the Phantom said, before disappearing in a shadow.

…

Meanwhile, in the astral realm, Queen Jade and her demonic creator were watching Jade studying from the books and scrolls she had secretly retrieved from the temple.

"See, father? Everything's going as I planned. Jade has already learned to summon Shadowkhan, and is on her way on becoming a powerful dark sorceress," the Queen commented proudly, "I will be in control before she even realizes it."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, kid," Tarakudo replied, "As long as she has the Tiger talisman, you will be as trapped as I am."

"Again, that will change soon. Just as I predicted, Jade hasn't resigned herself to her current abilities," the Queen said, not dropping her smug tone, "And I will also learn every new spell, technique, and ability that she will study from those books."

"By the way, you should have told her to gather the rest of the Oni masks. It's imperative to find them if we want our plan to work."

"They're already too busy going after Wong and that damn ring, even if it's obvious that they would want to recover dangerous artifacts, at least to put them in a safe place. The masks will have to wait until I'm – until _we're_ free."

"Don't think I didn't notice that you were about to say 'until I'm free'. But I'm going to let that slip," the Oni King said with an unnerving smile.

The dimensional window they used to watch Jade's life through her eyes was slowly closing, which meant that Jade was about to fall asleep.

"That's my clue to leave, isn't it? It's okay. I guess that no girl wants her dad to interrupt her sleepover," Tarakudo snarked before leaving.

After Queen Jade blew a raspberry at him, she mentally reviewed all what she was going to tell Jade. She had prepared a little surprise to scare her to death, as well as to build some mistrust between her and her family. The Queen had witnessed Uncle's angry reprimand after Jade asked to be trained, and it was glorious! The rage, the resentment, the sadness… they all tasted so sweet, and made the Queen so strong! However, that damn archeologist came and swiped those feelings way with his soothing words, replacing them with sour comfort and trust. Who knew that Jackie would be so supportive of Jade's desire to learn magic?

Jade was coming, it was about time to get the show rolling. The Queen reminded herself that she also had to tell Jade about the Sword of Kusanagi. Everything would be lost if Wong's plans succeeded.

"Hello Jade. Congratulations on summoning the Shadowkhan. And I must admit that the ones you created were quite cool," the Queen praised.

"Tch, cut the act, Queenie. I know that you brought me here for more than giving compliments," Jade snapped at her, "It's about our next destination, right?"

"Ah, sharp as ever. Yes, my dear, Wong will try to claim the Sword of Kusanagi from its resting place. You will find the blade on an island to the south of the Sea of Japan."

"Great. Goodbye," Jade said as she turned around.

The Queen sighed in an overly dramatic way, "Why do you always have to make this so hard, Jade? What have I done to deserve your contempt? I'm only trying to help you. Hell, I'm almost like the sister you always wanted."

"Yeah, about that, you made me realize that being an only child rocks," Jade said. She couldn't imagine how her life could be with the Queen as her sister.

"By the way, I saw what you did. Getting those books about dark magic behind your family's back. I thought you didn't have the guts to do something like that. I'm impressed!" the Queen said. Jade already felt bad for doing such a thing, and the Queen's words only made her feel worse, "But I think that you should have accepted Wong's offer and became his apprentice."

"Have you lost your mind? Joining Wong? Come on, that's something not even _you_ would do."

"Come on, think about it. I'm not telling you to join him for real. Wong can teach you a lot of things, and can help you to become more powerful. Then, once you don't need him anymore, you strike him down in a moment of weakness. Just like Sasuke did to Orochimaru. Look at the possible results – you will become more powerful and get rid of a mortal enemy at the same time. There's nothing that can go wrong."

Of course, Jade had watched enough cartoons and read enough comics to realize that plenty of things could go wrong. And while she had many talents and abilities, being a double agent wasn't among them.

"You have a criminal mind-"

"Thank you!"

"That wasn't supposed to be a compliment. Anyway, I'm not going to join Wong."

"You will learn at a much slower pace without a master to instruct you. But I believe that you can become a powerful dark sorceress on your own."

"What? No! I don't want to become any such thing! I'm only becoming stronger so I can defeat Wong and go back to normal! And get rid of YOU!"

"My poor child… you're _soooooo_ confused… don't you realize that you don't belong to them anymore? That you have become something entirely different? And as long as you don't know where you truly belong to, this will be your future!"

The Queen waved her hands, and Jade was engulfed in a cloud of smoke.

"What the…?" Jade said between coughs.

When the cloud was dispelled, the Queen wasn't there anymore. Instead, Jade was looking at Jackie, Uncle, Tohru and Viper.

"The spell is ready, sensei. You can seal the demon now," Tohru said as he put an ornate vase on the floor.

"Spell? What are you going to do? What's going on?" Jade asked.

"It isn't obvious? We're going to seal you away, like we've done to all the other demons," Viper explained, with a slight hint of contempt.

"What? But why? I'm not a demon, I'm still Jade, only different!" Jade pleaded.

The girl knew this wasn't real, but there was a part of her brain that couldn't grasp this concept.

"No, you're not Jade! Jade is dead! Don't dare to defile her memory by claiming to be her!" Jackie shouted. His voice was overflowing with so much hate that it didn't sound like Jackie at all.

"But…you can't do this!"

"Watch me," Uncle calmly said, before aiming his chi blaster at her and reciting his usual incantation.

Suddenly, Jade felt an invisible force start to absorb her into the vase.

"No! This isn't real! My family would never turn on me! It's not real, it's not real, it's not real…!"

"It's more real than you think, kid…" Said an unknown male voice that she never heard before.

Jade suddenly woke up, covered in sweat, breathing heavily. Like she said, she knew it wasn't real. Even the other time she went evil, they tried to turn her back to normal rather than seal her away like she was a demon sorcerer.

But it felt so real…

She decided that the Queen would pay for such a torment. Though unbeknownst to her, the Queen of the Shadowkhan was about to meet a very unpleasant visitor…

Back at the astral plane, Queen Jade was enjoying the result of her mental torture on Jade. Oh, it was so easy to manipulate this simpleton girl's mind…

"I hope I haven't caused her too much trauma. I still need her to recover the Dark Treasures," she mused to herself.

"I was wondering who was leaking our secret plans to the Chans. To be honest, I never thought it would be you, but in hindsight it makes sense," a new male voice said.

Queen Jade paled. That voice didn't belong to her father, "Who's there?! Show yourself, coward!"

The Phantom appeared before her in all his spooky glory.

"It's… you!" Queen Jade exclaimed, trying to hide her fear.

"You know me? Guess that your daddy told you about me. I guess that with you two sealed, you have plenty of time to talk. I know what both you and your demon father plan to do, and I'm afraid I can't let you do it."

"You… you can't harm me! You're a ghost! You have no power!"

"In the mortal plane, maybe. But here… the possibilities are endless…" he said in a creepy tone as he floated towards the Queen.

The astral tigers made no effort to stop him, but roared when the Queen stepped back, reminding her not to move.

"I like your jail. It keeps you imprisoned, but it doesn't protect you from outside threats. Deliciously convenient, don't you think?"

"Father! FATHER!" The Queen cried at the top of her lungs.

"Scream all you want, the floating head won't hear you. I made sure of it." [2]

…

When Jade woke up in the morning, her whole right hand was now blue.

She told everybody about her latest encounter with the Queen, and that Daolon Wong was after an ancient artifact called the Sword of Kusanagi, hidden on an island in the Sea of Japan. Tohru explained to everyone the legend of the Sacred Treasures of Japan, items of great power. Officially, the three items were still in possession of the current Imperial family, but then that probably meant that those artifacts must be replicas, and the originals were scattered around the world, if they still existed.

Navigating through the Sea of Japan in a rented boat, Uncle's locator spell detected a great source of negative chi, which took them to an island surrounded by fog. However, they realized that the fog was only outside the island, acting as some sort of shield.

"I feel the same cold from the time we stormed Wong's fortress. Does this mean that this island is full of dark magic?" Viper asked, as she rubbed her arms.

"Yes. There is a great darkness in this island, and it's not Wong," Uncle observed, "Uncle guesses the evil chi comes from the item he came to look for."

"Why does evil have to be so cold?" Viper complained.

"This doesn't make sense. The Sword of Kusanagi was a gift from the gods, and it represented valor. Why would Wong want to claim such an item?" Tohru asked.

"Maybe he wants to corrupt it," Jackie guessed.

"If it's not corrupted already. Uncle said that there's a strong negative chi in this island," Jade interjected.

"And it's increasing as we approach!" Uncle said.

They landed on the island, and saw an old, four story tall tower at the top of a nearby large, steep hill. The Sword of Kusanagi (or whatever dark artifact Wong was here for) must be there. However, when they were at the base of the hill, a purple dark chi blast suddenly almost hit them.

"What the hell was that!?" Jade shouted.

"It's Wong! He's at the top of the hill!" Tohru said as he pointed to the top of the hill.

Wong was flanked by several of his Wizard-Khan, who were casting energy bolts at the J-Team below.

"They've got the high ground. Getting there is going to be hard," Viper commented.

"Don't worry!" Jade said as she switched to her Shadowkhan form, "My girls will take care of them!"

Jade spread her arms as she closed her eyes and concentrated, and five shadows came to her. From each shadow a white-haired kunoichi emerged. They stood there, waiting orders from their mistress. Just as Jade feared, five Shadowkhan was her limit. Whenever she tried to summon more, something blocked her power, and she immediately deduced it was the Tiger Talisman. It was okay, five Shadowkhan should be more than enough now.

"We need to get to the top of the hill as fast as possible! Go and kill those Shadowkhan!"

The five female Shadowkhan rushed towards the top of the cliff, dodging the dark chi blasts as well as possible. However, the fact that they were in a disadvantageous terrain, plus being outnumbered, was a huge handicap, and in the end, only two of them managed to get to the top and engage Wong's Shadowkhan, which started to fall like flies against the kunoichi.

"Come on, this is our chance! Tohru, take us to the top!" Uncle instructed.

Tohru picked up his master, and activated the Rabbit talisman to reach the top in mere seconds. Jade's kunoichi were engaging Wong and his Shadowkhan, but some of them were still firing energy beams at Jackie, Jade and Viper, who were still on their way to the top. Both master and apprentice pulled out their chi blasters, and recited the usual chant.

"Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao! Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao!" Both said in unison as the Shadowkahn quickly began to disappear. However, the spell also affected Jade's kunoichi, who disappeared as well.

"UNCLE!" Jade yelled angrily, "You killed my girls!"

"Come on Jade, you know that Shadowkhan aren't sentient, or even alive. Plus, they had to do it if we ever wanted to reach the top," Jackie calmly explained.

"Plus, it's not that you can't summon more, right?" Viper asked.

Jade huffed as she crossed her arms.

"Ironfst, Fang, Tempest!" Wong's summoning call to his warriors snapped the heroes back.

"Crush them! And make sure they don't get near the tower!" the dark chi wizard said before tearing the rusty doors apart with telekinesis and floating inside.

"We can't let Wong get the sword! Somebody must go there and stop him!" Uncle said in a worried tone.

"I'll go. That is, if you can keep Wong's minions busy," Viper said.

"Leave that to me!" Jade said as she summoned another group of Shadowkhan, "Now go!"

Jade commanded her kunoichi to attack Ironfist, while Jackie dealt with Fang and Uncle and Tohru faced Tempest. Viper took advantage of the dark chi warriors' predicament and swiftly passed by them and entered the tower. In no time, she caught up with the dark chi wizard, who was floating his way towards the top of the tower with calm parsimony. The dark chi wizard immediately noticed Viper and turned around.

"You must hold very little value for your life if you dared to follow me," Wong said in a menacing tone.

"What can I say? You are going for an ancient, valuable artifact, and some habits are hard to drop," Viper joked as she shrugged.

Wong's reply came in the form of two heat beams from his eyes, which the former thief easily dodged, despite Wong not being far from her. She then counterattacked with the Dragon talisman, but Wong blocked her fire stream with a dark chi blast of his own.

"I don't have to fight you myself," Wong said, as the blue-skinned wizard summoned three of his spellcasting Shadowkhan from the shadows.

"Kill her!" he ordered, before resuming his march to the top.

Viper went back to dodging dark chi blasts, but this time from three different shooters, giving her no chance to counterattack. Some of the chi blasts made holes in the walls, which gave the former thief an idea. She slipped from the building through one of the holes, and began to climb the tower from the outside.

Meanwhile, back at the entrance of the tower, the J-Team was fighting Wong's dark chi warriors. Jade decided to send her Shadowkhan against Ironfist, which proved to be a terrible decision. The gauntlet-wielding brute easily dispatched them like they were nothing. When a kunoichi was about to hit him with a diving kick, Ironfist easily caught her by the ankle, and used her as a weapon to beat up other kunoichi, much to Jade's frustration.

"Can you make more of these blue babes? Beating them up is quite fun!" Ironfist said with a mocking laugh.

One could almost see smoke coming from Jade's ears at Ironfist's taunting. Any sensible or cautious person would flee in terror after such demonstration of power. Needless to say that Jade wasn't that kind of person, and much less now.

"Let's see if you keep laughing after this, Wreck-it-Jerk!" Jade said as she began to do some hand seals.

Despite having little time to practice, she managed to do the hand seal sequence correctly, and her hands began to cackle with purple sparks. She brought her hands forward, releasing a purple lightning bolt at her foe, who let out a cry of pain when the electricity hit him. However, he didn't disappear in blue smoke like Jade had hoped.

Angry at Jade, Ironfist didn't say anything and with a savage cry, he slammed the ground with both his fists, causing a massive shockwave that managed to disrupt the other two ensuing fights. However, Jade avoided the attack completely by floating a few inches above the ground. And she already had her next move planned.

"Ground can't touch Flying. But I guess that Wong wouldn't let you play Pokemon, now would he?" Jade asked with a broad smile. It was about time for the final move.

"Come on big guy, is a little girl too much for you?" Jade said as she blew a raspberry at him.

Ironfist let out another animal-like roar, and furiously charged at Jade like a mad rhino. The Shadowkhan girl watched her foe rushing straight into her trap. She did five hand seals, and a gray mist engulfed the surroundings. Ironfist charged into the mist, and when he finally got out, the muscular dark chi warrior soon realized his mistake – he had charged through the fog towards the edge of the hill, and his momentum was too great to stop in time. The result was just as Jade expected, and Ironfist went down the hill rolling, before finally crashing against a tree with such force that the tree was knocked over. Jade saw a cloud of blue smoke, which meant that the dark chi warrior was, for the moment, out of commission.

"One down, two more to go," Jade said as she turned towards the other two fights, which were quite even, "I think it's about time to call in the reinforcements."

Once again, Jade summoned five Kunoichi-Khan, and sent them to battle. Soon Fang and Tempest were overwhelmed, and decided that the best course of action was to fight together.

"Fang's going for the old chi wizard! Cover her!" the female warrior said as she summoned two of her anti-magic daggers.

"The perfect storm is coming!" Tempest said as he summoned several storm clouds above himself, in combination with strong winds.

"Tohru, she's going after Uncle again! Make sure she doesn't hit either of you with her daggers!" Jackie warned.

The magic storm did a good job keeping the Shadowkhan and heroes at bay, and Fang used the opportunity to strike. She rushed forward, leaped above the heroes, prepared her daggers…

…And threw them right at a dumbfounded Jade.

Jade didn't have time to react, since she, like everybody else, was expecting Fang to target Uncle. The blue dagger pierced her body, not causing any physical injury or even pain, but after that, she was forcefully reverted back to human. She felt all her inner energy dispelled, and her bond with the Shadowkhan was shattered as the kunoichi vanished. The dumbstruck, and now human, girl fell to her knees.

"JADE!" Jackie shouted in horror. The image of a knife going through his niece's body made him forget that the knife hadn't harmed her at all, "Jade, are you alright!?"

"Y-Yes… it's just… that harpy blocked my magic!" Jade said, more angry than anything, "Now I can't help!"

"Don't worry. Uncle, Tohru and myself will take care of them. You already did a good job with the other guy," Jackie said, happy to see that Jade was okay, "Go and find a safe spot."

Meanwhile, Viper had already reached the top of the tower, and congratulated herself for her climbing skills. The tower's upper floor didn't really have anything worth interest, only lots of junk covered in spider webs. But in the middle of the room, there was a sword in a beautiful dark blue scabbard with golden trimming. At that very moment, Wong arrived.

"Don't dare to put your hands on that sword!" Wong yelled.

"What sword? This one?" Viper said as she held the sword in the air.

Somehow, the blade was already in Viper hands. How did Wong miss that? Or was the thief as good as the Chans said?

Furious, Wong attacked her with his eye beams, but Viper dodged them, rolled forwards, and kicked Wong in the gut.

"You… will pay for that!" Wong said, holding his stomach. He disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

Wong reappeared next to his two remaining dark chi warriors. He turned at Tempest and barked, "Bring that tower down!"

"It will be a pleasure," Tempest said with delight. He threw his arms upwards, and commanded the storm clouds to bombard the tower with lightning. Each lightning strike set the tower on fire, and caused its structure to start cracking. Soon it would collapse, with Viper still inside it.

"Viper, you have to jump!" Jackie shouted from below.

"Alright, but promise you'll catch me!" Viper said. She took a run-up, and jumped out of the tower.

Jackie frantically moved from one place to another, with his arms open, ready to catch the falling thief. He found the right spot, but the force of Viper's fall was too great, and he collapsed the moment he caught her.

"Thank you Jackie, I owe you one!" Viper said, sitting on Jackie's gut.

"You're… welcome. But please get off of me, I can barely breathe," Jackie said. The thief stood up and helped the archeologist to stand up.

Wong, flanked by his minions, floated towards them menacingly.

"Give me the sword!" Wong demanded.

"Okay, let's see – I climbed a several stories tall tower, then I was forced to jump from its very top, just to get this sword, and you expect me to give it like that? Really?"

"I was expecting such an answer. Fang, Tempest, take that sword. Use any means!" the dark chi wizard commanded.

Fang was about to attack Viper, but Jackie stood in her way.

"Viper, take the sword and get out of here! We will take care of them!" Jackie said as he fought Fang.

Viper nodded and tried to run away, but was suddenly caught in the middle of a cyclone.

"Leaving so soon? Come on, stay a bit longer," Tempest said as he brought the cyclone with Viper inside towards him.

"Uncle, Tohru, help Viper!" Jackie said.

However, his brief moment of distraction was used by Fang to slash him across the chest. The injury would have been fatal if the archeologist hadn't jumped backwards in time. The Horse talisman healed his wound.

"I thought that your daggers were just anti magic!" Jackie said, after looking at his wound.

"The blue one cuts through magic. The red one cuts through flesh," Fang said coldly as she kept attacking Jackie.

Uncle and Tohru were about to help Viper, but Wong summoned several Shadowkhan, which cast a rain of dark chi blasts over the good chi wizards, forcing them to take cover.

"You still haven't realized it, have you? My power is now too great for you! You can't beat me!" the dark chi wizard boasted.

"We'll see about that," Viper said as she unsheathed the Kusanagi Sword, "If you wanted this blade so much, then it must have some sort of special power. If I can…"

"Ha! A mere thief can't unlock the dark power that blade holds! Only a master wizard like me can-" Wong's speech was interrupted when Viper cast a crescent blue blast at Tempest when she swung the sword in an horizontal motion, destroying the storm wizard, who vanished in a cloud of blue smoke. "IMPOSSIBLE!"

"It's very possible, evil gramps," Viper said, now free of her invisible prison.

"Fang! Kill her and take the sword!" Wong barked.

The female chi warrior summoned a sword made of energy that glowed with a sickly green light, and charged towards Viper. The two women engaged in a duel, but Viper was clearly superior despite the fact that the thief had never held a sword in her life. After disarming Fang with a masterful move, the thief buried the blade in Fang's belly, and the dark chi warrior disappeared.

"NO! This can't be!" Wong yelled in frustration. "Shadowkhan, attack!"

Uncle, who had sneaked from behind, blasted Wong with a chi beam, and Tohru caught the dark chi wizard in a bear hug.

"Jackie, the ring!" Uncle shouted.

Jackie nodded, and rushed towards Tohru, who was trying his best to hold the old villain. Jackie grabbed the ring and tried to pull it away from Wong's finger, but it didn't come off. It was like the ring was part of Wong's finger.

"I can't take it off! It's like it's attached to his finger!" Jackie said.

"Then say goodbye to your hand, old man," Viper said, her voice reverberating. She came close to Wong with the Kusanagi blade held ready to strike.

"Viper, wait, I'm sure there's a better way than-" Jackie tried to say, but Viper merely pushed him aside with her super strength.

"Viper! What are you doing?" Tohru asked, while Wong stopped squirming in his grip.

"I suppose that in the end, the power of the sword was too much for your simple mind to handle. I have nothing to do here anymore. Enjoy your homicidal friend," Wong said, before teleporting away. Even though Wong was gone, Viper stared at Tohru, and then charged at him with the sword raised over her head. Tohru used his super speed to dodge the attack and put some distance between himself and the thief.

"Viper, what's wrong with you?" Jackie asked.

Viper didn't say anything. She only stared at them with purple glowing eyes, devoid of any emotion.

"Aiyaaaaaaahh! The sword's evil magic has corrupted the thief!" Uncle shouted in horror.

"Sensei, can you make a spell to release her from the sword's control?" Tohru asked.

"I can try, but you have to keep her distracted," the old chi wizard said as he opened his backpack and took out a small cauldron and his usual potion ingredients.

Jackie and Tohru were about to fight the possessed Viper, but neither of them wanted to harm her. Too bad that Viper had no trouble harming them.

"Viper, please, you have to resist the sword's influence! You have to-" Jackie pleaded.

Viper stabbed the dark katana into the ground, casting an underground energy shockwave that would have shattered their bones if they hadn't jumped aside in opposite directions. Viper took advantage of the situation, and leapt towards Tohru, falling with her sword facing down, ready to stab the Japanese giant to death. Fortunately, Jackie saved Tohru by drop kicking Viper before she could kill the sumo.

Meanwhile, Jade was hiding behind a rock, watching the fight unfold. She was feeling so impotent for not being able to help. If that woman hadn't stripped her of her powers… hell, she didn't need the Shadowkhan. Her base powers would have been more than enough to tip the scale in their favor.

"Wait a minute, what I'm saying? I'm Jade Chan! I never had powers, and that wasn't an obstacle to save the day! Come on Jade, just because you can't use magic doesn't mean that you can't be of help!"

Tohru tried to body slam Viper, but the sumo forgot about the thief's super strength, and easily stopped his onslaught with one hand, before tossing him away like a ragdoll. The wizard apprentice painfully landed near Jade.

"Or maybe I can have somebody else use magic for me," Jade said as an idea formed in her mind, "Tohru! I know how we can incapacitate Viper until Uncle has the potion ready! Pay attention to this, there isn't much time!"

Back at the fight, Jackie was alone against the crazed thief, swinging her cursed blade at Jackie, while Jackie was still futilely trying to reason with her.

"Come on Viper, you're better than this! Even as a criminal, you were proud that you didn't hurt anybody!" Jackie said as he dodged sword swings.

"Jackie, the spell is ready! But thief must stay still for a moment!" Uncle's voice said from behind.

Giving up, Jackie decided that he had to counterattack. However, with the Ox talisman and the sword, Viper was nearly unbeatable. And she hadn't even used the Dragon talisman yet. She easily blocked all of Jackie's blows, and pushed the archeologist backwards with a powerful kick. Fortunately, Tohru caught him.

"Tohru, what were you doing!?" Jackie asked, obviously mad for being left alone.

"Uh, sorry. I think I can defeat her," Tohru said, not sure of it himself. He turned back at Jade, who shouted at him, "Do what I told you!"

Slowly, Tohru did four hand seals, the last one by placing both palms of his hands together. When he separated them, there was a green chi ball between them. A chain made of solid energy shot from the ball, wrapping around Viper in a tight grip.

"It worked!" Tohru said.

"Of course it worked! Now make sure she doesn't break free!" Jade said.

Uncle poured a few drops of his new potion on his lizard chi blaster, and recited his trademark incantation.

"Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao!" Uncle said, while shooting a green energy beam at Viper.

Upon being struck, the crazed thief was lifted into mid air and let out an inhuman shriek as the dark chi was forcefully extracted from her and placed back into the sword. Viper opened her hand, dropping the sword to the ground.

"Quickly Tohru, put the sword in the magic-proof chest!" Uncle instructed his apprentice.

While Tohru placed the sword in the aforementioned chest, Jackie and Jade checked on Viper.

"Is she alright?" Jade asked.

"Yes. She's just unconscious. Come on, we have to take her to a safer place," Jackie, said before carrying Viper away.

Hours later, back at the J-Team's hotel in Japan, they were relating to Viper how the Sword of Kusanagi had possessed her.

"I did all that? I'm sorry. I hope I didn't hurt you guys," Viper said in an apologetic tone.

"It's okay, really. Besides, it wasn't really you," Tohru said.

"Still, I should have known better than to use an evil magic weapon."

"It's just lucky that Wong didn't get his hands on an artifact of such power. No wonder he wanted it so much," Uncle said.

"Sensei, the Sword of Kusanagi was one of the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan. I'm sure that Wong will go after the other two," the Japanese giant said.

"Then what are we waiting for? We must do research is we want to find those artifacts first!" Uncle declared.

Jade had been uninvolved in the conversation. During the trip back to the hotel, she had realized something – when Fang depowered her, she felt so empty, so weak and vulnerable, so small and useless. And that if she used the Ring of Kur-Asan to turn herself back to normal, that's how she would feel for the rest of her life. After tasting such a great power, she didn't want to give it up.

Was the Queen right after all?

**[1]: Paper tags with symbols or inscriptions used as magic wards. Also known as Sutras or Pujok, depending on the country.**

**[2]: So is this the last time we will see the Queen of the Shadowkhan? Deep inside, all of you know the answer. My advice is not to make assumptions based on what you've seen ;)**

* * *

**Author's note: I was a bit let down by the minimal reception of the previous chapter. Was something wrong with it? Because I thought that it would be the most liked chapter of the story so far.  
**

**Anyway, at least I hope that you liked this chapter better. The Chans finally scored a victory against Wong, and the search of the dark Treasures continues. And what happened with the Queen? You'll have to wait for future chapters to discover her fate ;)**

**Thanks a lot to everybody who supported this story, and please leave a review! Reviews make me happy and more motivated to write! See ya next friday!**


	9. The Mirror of Despair

**Chapter 9: The Mirror of Despair.**

A few days had passed since the J-Team successfully retrieved the Sword of Kusanagi, which was now in the relative safety of the Section 13 vault, where Uncle had put up enough protective wards to make sure that the blade's influence didn't affect anybody else, like had happened to Viper.

Jade was expecting that the Queen would appear to her again in a dream to reveal the location of the next artifact, but her alter ego didn't show up again. Still, it wasn't that Jade missed seeing the Queen's lipless face [1].

"Maybe she's gone. Maybe Fang's dagger killed her," Jade pondered.

However, she was forced to discard the idea. The blue skin kept spreading. Now not only had her right forearm turned blue, but her right foot was blue as well. Jade knew that the Queen was there, somewhere inside her. Time was running out if she ever wanted to go back to normal.

Jade had continued to study magic, not just dark but everything she could learn. Jade was completely sure that it was thanks to her and her new skills that they had finally defeated Wong after a frustrating losing streak. She didn't have to worry about somebody entering her room and finding the many books and scrolls, either, since they were now nothing but ashes, and their contents transferred to Jade's laptop.

One night, Jade had woken up, and summoned her Shadowkhan. She commanded them to take all the books and scrolls, and convert them to digital files using the scanners in Section 13's offices. The mission was a success, and the kunoichi returned with a series of pen drives (that Jade had given them prior) full of the valuable information. Then she told them to get rid of the originals. The fact that they had managed to accomplish the mission without being seen nor leaving any trace of their actions left Jade with mixed feelings – on one hand, she was satisfied with her minions' effectiveness, but on the other hand, that said very little about the Section 13 agents.

"When I'm in charge of this place, all my agents will be trained to fight magical enemies," Jade thought.

Jade also used this little mission as a way to test her power and control of the Shadowkhan. She could see through their eyes, put her thoughts in their heads, and move them as if they were extensions of her body. It was like an out of body experience. It didn't mean that they couldn't act independently in case Jade wanted them to. Their mind worked as if they were a hive and Jade was their… Queen.

Suddenly that choice of title acquired a new meaning.

And the best part of it all was that with all the magic knowledge crammed into her laptop, she could easily carry it wherever she went. Though her eyes were staring to hurt from closely staring at the screen for so much time, and she heard Jackie expressing his concern of Jade spending too much time with her laptop.

After getting up, everyone went to Uncle's shop in order to research the two remaining Treasures, as well as the Ring of Kur-Asan.

This was the downside of the Queen's mysterious disappearance, that they had nobody to tell them where to go and which artifacts to look for (fortunately, they had that last part covered). The research on the remaining two Treasures barely had any results. The official story claimed that they were still in the possession of the Japanese Imperial Family, but obviously those were replicas, meaning that information about the original and corrupted Treasures was nonexistent.

Their research on the Ring wasn't much better either, since its power came from a genie, and genies were elusive creatures, even for the supernatural standard, and very little was known about them or how their magic worked. Uncle was sure that there had to be a way to remove the Ring from Wong's finger, but maybe they didn't have the right books.

Fortunately for them, the J-Team's luck was about to change. The store's door opened with a clinking, revealing Viper in her casual clothes, carrying a couple of grocery bags.

"Hey guys, how's the research going?" the former thief asked as she went to the kitchen and began to empty the bags and store their contents in the fridge.

"Not good," Jackie replied from the library, "We're advancing too slowly. At this rate, Wong will already have the remaining two Treasures by the time we come up with something useful."

"Cheer up, babyface – besides some food, I also bring something that will make you happy," Viper said as she entered the library and gave Jackie a pamphlet. It was about the American-Japanese History Museum, located in Los Angeles, which was about to host an exhibition for the next week of ancient artifacts from ancient Japan.

"Don't get me wrong Viper, I love museums, but I don't think this is the best time to-"

"Look closer, Jackie," Viper said, pointing out one of the artifacts highlighted in the pamphlet.

One of the artifacts about to be displayed was a replica of the Mirror Yata no Kagami. According to the description provided, it was made along with the Sword and the Jewel by a crafty forger in order to steal and replace the originals so he could access their allegedly divine power. Still, it was a millenary piece of art.

"Good try Viper, but we're looking for the real one, not a copy," Tohru said as he took a look at the pamphlet.

"Think about it, big guy – we know for a fact that the official Treasures are replicas. So what if this alleged copy was the original mirror, which was corrupted by evil chi?" Viper asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Aiyaaaaaahh! The thief is right! I can't believe Uncle didn't think of that!" Uncle said as he slapped himself as punishment, "We were looking for information on the real treasures when we should be looking for supposedly fake ones!"

"If the mirror at the exhibition is the one Wong is after, then the people of Los Angeles will be in danger. If the mirror possesses somebody like the sword possessed Viper…"

"Not to mention all the havoc Wong would cause to get it," Tohru added.

"I'll call Captain Black for an airplane. You go and pack everything necessary for the trip," Jackie instructed Uncle and Tohru as he pulled out his cell phone.

…

Soon, they were on a plane that taking them to the relatively close city of Los Angeles. Jade had told Viper that they were in Los Angeles once before, more specifically Hollywood, trying to stop Shendu from opening the portal of Tchang Zu, the Thunder Demon. Jade had also tried to turn Jackie into a Hollywood superstar, but during the fight with the demon, the car of the producer she had been talking to was destroyed by a lightning bolt, and he didn't want anything more to do with Jackie again.

"What a pity. I think you'd be a great film star," Viper said with a teasing smile.

"Nonsense. I'm not cut out to be famous. Not that I want to be famous, mind you," Jackie said. He was speaking the truth. Everybody around him knew that Jackie would be happier with a simple life, working as an archeologist and sometimes as a teacher at college, raising Jade, and maybe one day find a nice woman to start a family of his own with.

"Come on Jackie, after all the stuff I've seen you do, you deserve some recognition for all the times you've saved the world – with my invaluable help, of course – Hell, maybe not a movie, but I think you deserve at least a Saturday morning cartoon," Jade said.

"Now that's just ridiculous," Jackie replied.

After the plane landed, they went right to the museum, where the Mirror was being displayed, and everyone was thankful that Wong hadn't arrived yet – though there was the possibility that Wong had gone for the third item instead [2]. The mirror looked more like a black, metallic buckler rather than a proper mirror.

Uncle and Tohru performed some tests, as discreetly as possible, in order to confirm that yes, the artifact reeked of negative chi. After that, they went to see other pieces of the exhibition, while Jade, bored as well, paced from one side of the museum to another, and sometimes looked at her bandaged hand – obviously applied to hide her blue skin. While Jackie and Viper continued staring at the evil mirror, looking for a way to take it out before Wong could get his creased hands on it, Jackie realized something.

"Viper, how did you know that the Mirror was here?" Jackie asked.

"I still have my contacts from when I was a thief, and some of them still don't know that I'm no longer in the stealing business anymore, so I told them that I was interested in stealing ancient Japanese artifacts related to the Emperors, and voilá! I got this," Viper said. Jackie didn't say anything, he just stared at her in amazement, "What? Did you think that I only tagged along to be the mandatory token adult female?"

Of course, Jackie should have known better than that. He remembered how she helped him to catch Origami in Paris, but in the end he refused to acknowledge her help. It was a callous move, very strange for him to do. Maybe because he didn't want to admit that a thief helped him. Or maybe it was something else, something far deeper.

"Not that you didn't need another girl in the group. Jade has too much testosterone around her," Viper said with a rogue smile.

…

Meanwhile, outside the museum, Daolon Wong was on the roof of another building, looking at the place that held the second Treasure. He had already lost one to the Chans, but that wouldn't happen again. He only needed to hold it for a few seconds, and the Ring would recognize the Mirror as his, and thus he would never lose it again. However, Wong was really pissed at the fact that now he had to raid Section 13 again in order to get the Sword. A thought crossed his mind – if he had to attack Section 13, why not let Chan and his friends gather all three artifacts, and then steal them? But the answer came just as quickly – because those artifacts had a great power, as evidenced in their last encounter.

It had taken him a while to locate another of the artifacts. For some reason, the Phantom had mysteriously disappeared after he said he was going to take care of the spy. Had the spy taken care of him instead?

"Who cares? I don't need that ghost anymore. He already told me all what I needed to know."

If what the Phantom had said was true, Wong would only have to capture the three Dark Treasures to open the Forge of Shadows and become the new King of the Shadowkhan.

Still, that meant that Wong was on his own in the treasure hunt. However, the idea of letting Chan to get all the artifacts wasn't completely stupid – he could let Chan do the work of finding the Treasures, then he only needed to go and take them by force. Like he was about to do now.

Not caring about the hundreds of people in the streets, and the dozens more inside the museum, Wong slowly flew towards the exhibition, ready to unleash Hell upon it.

…

"Fortunately, I still have all my stealing toys. Tonight, we sneak into the museum, I'll deactivate all the security systems, and you'll get the Mirror," Viper explained.

"Why me?" Jackie asked.

"Hellooooo? Remember what happened the last time I got my hands on one of these artifacts? I'm not going to touch that thing and go on a murderous streak again."

"Fortunately, we're prepared for that," Jackie said as he took a piece of fabric from his pocket.

"I don't think we can suppress the artifact's influence with a mere hanky," Viper said.

"Actually, this is a magic handkerchief made by Uncle," Jackie explained.

"Should have guessed that," Viper said, then she snickered and said, "Didn't know that gramps was into sewing."

Suddenly there was a huge explosion on the roof, causing debris to fall into the museum. People inside panicked and tried to escape the museum in terror. From the hole that the explosion left, Daolon Wong slowly descended, sporting a menacing scowl.

"If you know what's good for you, give me the Mirror!" Wong demanded.

"So much for the original plan," Viper said as she smashed the Mirror's container with her elbow, causing the alarms to sound, "Quick, grab the Mirror!"

"I see you want to do this the painful way," Wong said as he watched Jackie grab the mirror, and tried to fry the archeologist with his eye beams before Jackie could cover the mirror with the anti-magic cloth.

Jackie had to jump out of the heat beams' trajectory, unfortunately dropping the mirror in the process. Wong smiled in satisfaction, and used the Rooster Talisman to call the Dark Treasure to him. However, he wasn't paying attention to Uncle, who shot him with his blaster, knocking him back. The Mirror dropped to the ground.

"Get the mirror!" Viper yelled.

"You don't have to ask twice!" Jade said, already in her Shadowkhan form, summoning five kunoichi, "Don't let Wong to get that mirror!"

Three of the Shadowkhan swung the flail of their kusarigamas at Wong, while another quickly grabbed the mirror and the remaining one stayed near Jade, acting as a bodyguard. The three fighting kunoichi were giving Wong a hard time, who couldn't do anything but dodge the painful blows. Even if he managed to use his eye beams, the female Shadowkhan would swiftly dodge them. It was about time to bring some reinforcements.

"Ironfist, Fang, Tempest!" Wong yelled as he summoned his dark chi warriors, "Get that mirror!"

"It will be a pleasure, master! A storm is coming!" Tempest said as he began to cast lightning bolts left and right.

This tipped the balance in Wong's favor, as Ironfist and Fang quickly dispatched the three kunoichi harassing Wong and Tempest blasted the one holding the mirror. Quick as lightning, Fang rushed towards the Mirror, doing several somersaults, and grabbed it.

"Fang got it!" the dark chi warrior said.

"Not for long!" Jade said while forming hand seals at a quick speed. When she finished, Jade cast her arms forward, releasing a telekinetic shockwave that hurled the woman back, tossing the Mirror into the air.

"Tohru! Catch the Mirror!" Uncle ordered at the same time he fired a chi blast at Wong.

Tohru managed to catch the mirror before it hit the floor – or before somebody else could get their hands on it. However, the moment Tohru laid his eyes on the shadow artifact, the Mirror began to glow with a purple light.

"AAAAAARRGHHH!" Tohru yelled as his eyes began to glow with a purple light as well.

"Aiyaaaaaaahh! The Mirror is possessing Tohru!" Uncle yelled in horror.

"Oh no, not again!" Jackie said as he slapped his face. If Viper was deadly under one of the artifacts' influence, he didn't want to see what somebody as large as Tohru could do.

As the others reacted, Jade prepared for the worst, and summoned four more Shadowkhan to replace the ones destroyed, despite knowing that they wouldn't do much against the sumo. However, Tohru didn't go on a crazy rampage like Viper had. The Japanese giant merely collapsed, causing a small tremor when his massive body hit the ground, and dropped the Mirror. Uncle immediately went to check on his apprentice.

"What happened?" Viper asked.

"The Mirror!" Jade said, as she made to pick it up.

"JADE, NO! DON'T TOUCH IT!" Jackie yelled, fearing that something horrible might happen to his niece like it happened to Tohru.

"But-"

"No!"

"What if I use a Shadowkhan?"

"…Okay. But don't touch it!"

"Jackie! Use the Horse Talisman on Tohru!" Uncle called.

Jackie nodded and rushed towards the fallen giant while Uncle and the girls fought against Wong and his minions. Unfortunately, the talisman didn't awaken the wizard apprentice from his trance.

"It isn't working!" Jackie said after using it, "We have to get Tohru out of here!"

"And the Mirror!" Viper added.

"I can get Tohru out of here!" Jade said before calling a Shadowkhan, "You! Take Tohru to a safe place!"

"Uncle must go with Tohru and make sure he's okay," the old chi wizard said.

"Alright, you!" Jade said to another Shadowkhan, "Take Uncle as well!"

The two Shadowkhan stopped fighting Fang and Tempest, and pulled both wizards into a pool of shadow, disappearing.

"One less problem to deal with," Jade thought, knowing that Tohru was now safe. However without Uncle and Tohru, and with just three Shadowkhan, they were badly outnumbered.

"Jade! The Mirror!" Jackie said.

Jade nodded, and mentally commanded the kunoichi that was holding the mirror to toss it to Jackie. The archeologist caught it, and quickly wrapped it with Uncle's magic-proof cloth, before fleeing from the museum.

"After him!" Wong yelled.

…

Jackie managed to escape the museum with the mirror as Ironfist chucked heavy objects at him, Fang showered him with knives, and Tempest tried to blast him into dust with lightning bolt.

"Bad day, bad day, bad day, bad day, bad day!" Jackie shouted as he fled from Wong's minions.

Meanwhile, Jade floated outside the museum through a window, landed on a lamppost, and saw Jackie's predicament. Maybe she could send the kunoichi as reinforcements, but they were too far away. She needed to get to him faster.

And that moment Jade saw exactly what she needed – a man near an orange car, about to open it. In a well-aimed jump, Jade landed on the car's roof.

"Sorry sir, but I need to borrow your car," Jade said, "It's an emergency."

"What? I'm not going to give my car to anybody, and much less to a kid! And why are you dressed like it's Halloween?" the man asked.

"GIVE ME YOUR CAR NOW OR I'LL FEAST UPON YOUR BRAINS!" Jade hissed with an echoing voice as her eyes flared with a red man ran away screaming in terror.

"Tch, he should have said yes when I asked him politely. Wait a minute, did I just steal a car? And why does it feel so good?" Jade asked, trying to understand her feelings, but cast those thoughts aside, "I'll think about that later, Jackie needs me!"

Jade buckled the seatbelt and was about to start the car, when she realized that her feet didn't reach the pedals, and she could barely see the windshield.

"Rats!" Jade cursed as she crossed her arms.

…

Jackie was running for his life, tightly holding the Mirror, as Wong's minions chased him. Apparently, Wong didn't care about him or his minions being seen by the public and appearing on the news, since these were populated areas. Even while running, Jackie took a moment to wish that no civilians would be harmed by Wong's havoc.

"Now that I think about it, it's a good thing that Wong never thinks about taking hostages," Jackie thought.

Suddenly his escape was blocked by an orange car, which stopped in front of him abruptly.

"Jackie, get into the car!" Jade shouted from the passenger seat.

Not thinking twice, Jackie quickly got into the back seat. The car sped up and soon the dark chi warriors where nowhere to be seen. The archeologist sighed in relief, knowing that for the moment he was safe.

"That was close! Do you have the Mirror?" Jade asked.

Jackie nodded and showed the wrapped mirror to Jade. Then the car abruptly swerved suddenly.

"Hey, who's driv-WAAAAHHH!" Jackie yelled upon seeing that one of Jade's Shadowkhan was behind the wheel, "Jade, why is a Shadowkhan driving?"

"Because I'm too small to drive? Duh," Jade replied. Jackie didn't like his niece's cynical tone.

"Jade, how long have you been transformed?"

Jade showed him a chronometer that marked twenty-two minutes and counting.

"Relax, I still have plenty of time," Jade said.

Jackie then saw how they almost ran over a middle-aged lady.

"Jade, does the Shadowkhan know how to drive?"

"No, that's why I'm mentally controlling her."

"But you don't know to drive either!"

"Yeah, but I've seen you drive a thousand times, and it doesn't look hard," Jade said. The car then crashed into a bunch of trashcans, sending garbage all over the car and the street, "Okay, maybe it's not that easy. Now shut up, you're breaking my concentration."

"Jade, you should stop and let me drive."

"Come on, I'm getting the hang of this," Jade said, before the car almost run over a dog, "Okay, maybe you're right. But one joke about women driving and I'll punch you in the face."

Jackie sighed, wondering if Jade hadn't figured out by now that he wasn't into sexist humor. Jade was about to command the Shadowkhan to stop the car and let Jackie drive when something exploded behind them.

"That wasn't me, I swear!" Jade said.

Jackie looked through the back window and saw Wong flying behind them, firing heat beams at them. Fortunately, Wong's aim wasn't good enough to hit a speeding car.

"Wong is right behind us!" Jackie said.

"Guess that we can't stop to let you drive. But don't worry, my girls will take care of him!" Jade said as she snapped her fingers.

Jackie was startled when two more kunoichi suddenly appeared besides him. The female ninja climbed out of the car and up the car's roof, and summoned a pair of bows from the shadows. Properly armed, the Shadowkhan duo fired shadow arrows at the flying wizard, forcing him to put a greater distance between him and them if he wanted to avoid the deadly bolts. Of course, Wong wasn't going to give up so easily, and summoned four Wizard Khan a hundred meters ahead of the car. Thanks to the Demon Archive, he had managed to teach his minions more spells besides shooting energy blasts.

The four Shadowkhan mages summoned a pool of shadows in the middle of the road, and when Jackie and Jade's car passed by, it was abruptly stopped by multiple tentacle-like shadows coming from the darkened zone. Jackie, Jade, and the kunoichi quickly got out of the car. Jade summoned two more kunoichi for the ensuing fight. Wong finally caught up with them.

"I'm not going to ask again. Give. Me. The Mirror!" Wong demanded.

"Why do you want the Mirror so much, Wong? Judging by your face you wouldn't like to see your own reflection," Jackie said with a cocky smile.

Wong growled in anger (though whether at Jackie's insult or his refusal to surrender was unclear), and mentally commanded the Shadowkhan to blast them to dust. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten about the Phantom's advice about only using them as ranged support, and after quickly dodging the initial energy blasts, the Chans and the enemy Shadowkhan quickly dispatched the Wizard Khans with ease.

Of course, those weren't Wong's only servants.

"Ironfist, Fang, Tempest!" Wong yelled as he summoned his main minions from clouds of blue smoke.

Things didn't look good. Without Uncle, Tohru and Viper, they were clearly unmatched. Strange as it was, Jackie found himself being grateful for Jade's Shadowkhan. They would help to balance the fight out.

"Jade, send your Shadowkhan against Wong and Tempest, they'll do better against them than against Ironfist and Fang," Jackie whispered to his niece.

"You don't have to tell me how to manage my minions," Jade said, mildly annoyed as she mentally commanded her minions to attack the two wizards, "And yes, I already know I don't have to get near the woman."

"Actually, I'd tell you not to get near any of them, but I know that you're not going to listen. Plus, we're surrounded and have nowhere to hide."

"Relax, Jackie, I'm immortal, remember? It was your idea after all."

"I'll try to get the woman away from you," Jackie said before trying to dive kick Fang.

That meant that Jade would have to deal with the mountain man with the huge gauntlets, which ironically was the best option for her.

"Don't think I forgot how you humiliated me last time we met," Ironfist said in a resentful tone as he advanced menacingly towards Jade, "But guess what? IT'S PAYBACK TIME!"

Ironfist tried to smash Jade with his fist as if it were a hammer, but much to the dark chi warrior's surprise, Jade managed to block the attack with both hands.

"WHAT!?"

"I may be small, but I'm much stronger than I look, jerk!" Jade said, pushing Ironfist's fist back.

The Shadowkhan girl leaped towards his face, and kicked him hard in the chin. Ironfist stumbled backwards, and rubbed his chin.

"I admit that you're strong, little girl, but not so much compared to me!" Ironfist said, and in a truly impressive display of brute force, he tore a chunk of concrete out of the sidewalk, lifting it above his head before trying to smash Jade with it. However, Jade was faster and dodged the attack.

"You'll need something more than brute strength to defeat me!" Jade said while she uppercut him. Despite pouring a great deal of energy into the attack, Ironfist wasn't harmed by the punch.

"So will you," Ironfist said.

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. Jade's body was starting to feel sore from using her super strength, which didn't have much affect on Ironfist, whose stamina seemed to be infinite. Fortunately for Jade, she had other resources besides magic. She did a series of hand seals, and the area around her was covered in thick fog.

"NOT FALLING FOR THAT AGAIN!" Ironfist said as he slapped his metallic-clad hands together, releasing a powerful shockwave.

The shockwave hit Jade and pushed her out of the mist with tremendous force. The impact was so great that it also caused the kunoichi fighting Wong and Tempest to disappear. And while Jade was still recovering from the impact, she heard quick and loud footsteps coming closer. She saw in horror that the enraged Ironfist was charging at her with predictable intentions. Despite Jade knowing that he couldn't kill her, whatever he had in mind would be very, very, _very_ painful.

But Ironfist's attack never came to be, as the charging hulk stopped upon hearing a motor roar and a saw a shadow appear over him and Jade. Both the dark chi warrior and Shadowkhan girl looked up to see somebody riding a motorbike in midair above them. The biker jumped off of the motorbike as it hit the ground, and delivered a powerful kick to Ironfist that hurled the dark chi warrior backwards as if a speeding train had hit him.

"Good to see that I wasn't late," the biker said as she removed her helmet, revealing her to be Viper, "Though maybe I should have let you deal with him alone, given that you had no troubles leaving me in the museum."

"Um… sorry for that," Jade said, a bit ashamed.

"It's okay, just don't do it again," Viper said with a kind smile.

Jade saw Jackie dodging attacks from Wong and his two remaining minions, and realized that her Shadowkhan were long gone. She quickly summoned five new ones in order to face Wong. Doing several back flips, Jackie joined the girls.

"Viper! Thank goodness you're here!" Jackie said, slightly relieved to have some reinforcements.

"Even with Viper, this fight isn't going to be any easier," Jade said a bit worried.

"Who says that we have to fight? Jackie, do you have the Mirror?" Viper asked, and Jackie nodded, "Then we've already won! Jade, tell your Shadowkhan to get us out of here!"

"Right away!"

Wong heard what Viper said, and wasn't going to let that happen. "Stop them! Don't let them escape!"

"Sorry evil gramps, better luck next time!" Viper said as she threw a smoke bomb at them. Tempest cast a wind to dispel the smoke, but the Chans and Viper were gone, and the Mirror with them.

"RAAAAAAARGH!" Wong growled in anger.

…

The next day, the J-Team was back in San Francisco, and the Mirror was already stored in the safety of Section 13's vault. Still, their victory had a sour taste – Tohru hadn't woken up from his magic-induced coma, and worst of all, they don't know if he would. Tohru was placed in a bed, his eyes still glowing purple, and sometimes he would grunt or moan in pain, as if being tortured.

"So… what are we going to do with Tohru?" Jackie asked.

"I… I don't know. Uncle has tried the most common spells and remedies, but nothing worked. This magic is too powerful and too evil for normal means to work. I'll have to do some research," Uncle said, clearly downhearted.

"But… but you restored Viper to normal when that sword corrupted her! You can heal Tohru too, right?" Jade asked, on the verge of crying.

"This is very different. Being careless would result in causing irreversible damage to Tohru's mind. But I won't stop until he wakes up again. Meanwhile, you'll have some work to do," Uncle said as he picked up a folder with many notes and documents from a table and gave it to Jackie.

"What's this?" the archeologist asked.

"Tohru was investigating the Ring of Kur-Asan, and reached some good conclusions, even if he didn't see them himself. The Ring was forged by genie magic, which is very powerful and out of the reach of mortals like us. However, there are ways to counter genie magic. King Solomon was able to control genies and keep them at bay, and according to Tohru's notes, he left an archive that is hidden somewhere in the Middle East. You three go, while Uncle stays here and tries to wake up Tohru."

"But Uncle… we can't do it without you…"

"Yes, you can, and you must."

"And what about the last Treasure? If Wong finds it while we're gone…" Viper said.

"The last Treasure is not important, the Ring is. If we take the Ring from Wong, not only we will defeat him for good, but Jade can use it to be human again. Now go."

Jackie called Captain Black to arrange a transport while Jade and Viper went to pack their suitcases with the essentials for the trip. And all of them were hoping that, when they got back, the Japanese giant would be awake again.

**[1]: Did you notice that when Jade turned into the Queen, she lost her lips?**

**[2]: Again, did you notice that the Chans and Wong went after the same animal all the time? In other seasons this was justified, but not here. Yes, I know that it's just a cartoon and that I'm reading too much into it. :P**

* * *

**Author's note: The Chans captured another treasure, but they had to pay a huge price for it. Next Friday, Jackie, Jade and Viper will look for Solomon's Archive, while Uncle will try to wake up Tohru, only to find some unsettling revelations. Until then, don't forget to review, please! If I can take hours to write these lengthy chapters, I'm sure you can take 30 seconds to write something about them! Ciao!**


	10. Uncertain Future

**Chapter 10: Uncertain Future**

Jackie, Jade and Viper were each riding a dromedary, slowly traveling through a desert in Turkey. Jackie was leading the small group, using a map made from Tohru's annotations that would lead them to the Unseen Enclave, an abandoned hideout of mages who had served the ancient Persian Empire. Said mages were the key to Kur-Asan's defeat, the same ones who took the Ring and hid it inside the Chamber of Wishes, since they were unable to destroy it. Hopefully, Solomon's Archive would still be there, though Uncle told them to take everything they could find that might be helpful.

Their time was running out, as the blue skin kept spreading – it now covered Jade's whole right arm, her right leg up to the knee, her left foot, and left forearm. There were also many smaller patches of blue skin across her body. This forced her to wear concealing clothes when she was in public. Fortunately, since they were kilometers away from civilization, it wasn't necessary anymore. And it was a good thing too, since she couldn't resist the desert's high temperatures with so much clothing. Jackie and Viper also had clothes more according to the environment – Jackie was wearing his usual archeologist outfit, while Viper was wearing a beige tank top, dark green shorts, and dark brown boots.

"Are we there yet?" Jade asked.

"If you let me read the map in peace I can tell you," Jackie replied, "Finding ancient ruins is a job that requires a lot of patience, study, and dedication. And the fact that the place we're looking for is named 'The _Unseen _Enclave' really won't help."

"Jackie, do you do this often?" Viper asked.

"All the time! It's part of my job. Though I usually don't do this alone, since I would get help from other researchers. I'm sure that if Tohru was here, he would be of a lot of help, given it was him who found the references to the Enclave."

"Do you know how we could find this place faster? I could summon my girls and tell them to scout the zone," Jade suggested.

"Jade, you know what I think about the Shadowkhan," Jackie said in a slightly chiding tone, "You shouldn't use them unless it's completely necessary."

"Aww…" Jade said, looking down.

They'd been riding these camel wannabes for hours, without finding any kind of clue. While Jade did bring a couple of comics and a portable console, she couldn't use them while riding. Then the place they were heading to gave her an idea.

"Hey, I've got an idea to pass time! Since we're going to investigate genie magic, I was thinking, if you had a wish, what would you ask for?" Jade asked.

"Well, that's something you have to think carefully about, since there are lots of good things you could do, like wishing for world peace, or the end of world hunger…" Jackie said, "Although sometimes I'd wish to have a normal life, out of this magic madness."

"Not surprising," Jade said, before turning to Viper and asking, "Hey Viper, can you give me a less boring answer?"

"Hey, just because something isn't fun or exciting doesn't mean that it's bad," Jackie protested.

"Come on Jackie, you shouldn't take Jade's comments so seriously," Viper said with a chuckle, "As for what I'd wish for… maybe fix my relationship with my parents. Or being able to re-live my childhood without that damn gymnastics…"

Jade frowned at Viper's answer. "Seriously? I expected that from Jackie, but you?"

"Jackie is right. Sometimes the best things aren't necessarily fun or exciting. I'm sure you'll understand once you grow up," Viper responded.

"Thanks for agreeing with me for once," Jackie told Viper. Then he turned to Jade, "What about you, Jade? What would you ask?"

"It isn't obvious? Infinite wishes! There's very little you can do with one wish!" Jade said.

"That's cheating!"

"No it's not! I was the one who came up with this and I say it's not cheating!"

"Well, imagine then that you couldn't ask for more wishes."

"_Okaaaaaaay_…" Jade said in defeat as she thought about her wish, "I just can't! One wish is too few!"

"So, there's nothing you'd really want more than anything in this world?" Viper asked, intrigued.

"Well… maybe to be like Jackie. Go around the world beating bad guys and being a hero."

"Don't you do that already?"

"No… I'm mostly his sidekick… well, until now…" Jade replied, looking down, "I would wish my life would be like it is right now… except for the part about being possessed by an evil alter ego."

"I'm sure the time for that will come, Jade. But you'll have to be patient. You're too young to fight against world-level threats," Jackie said.

"Listen to Jackie. One day you will look back and wished that you'd enjoy your childhood while you could," Viper said.

…

Meanwhile, at Uncle's Rare Finds, Uncle had finished the preparations for the ritual: A circle drawn on the floor, with some other symbols around it, as well as bowls with incense and torches. Inside the circle there were Uncle's stuffed lizard, blowfish, and a bag of supplies that he would need for the trip, and a lock of short black hair. And in the middle of the circle, the Sheep Talisman.

There were many ways to wake up somebody from a coma. If regular spells failed to wake up Tohru, then Uncle would go inside his mind and drag him out. It was a good thing that Jackie and the girls didn't take the Sheep Talisman with them, otherwise the spell wouldn't work. Rather than using the Sheep Talisman directly, he was using a ritual that not only would allow him access to Tohru's mind, but he could also bring several items with him, like his chi blasters.

After checking everything one last time, he sat in front of the Sheep Talisman in the lotus position, and recited his trademark incantation:

"Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao, Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao, Yu Mo Gwai Gui Fai Di Zao…"

The Sheep Talisman began to glow with a white light as its powers were activated. The talisman then emitted a powerful blinding white light that illuminated the entire room with such brightness that nothing could be seen by the sheer luminosity. When the light finally faded, Uncle saw that he was still inside his store, unlike what he had expected. However, he realized that most of the ritual's components were gone, except for the chi blasters and the bag of supplies. Did that mean that his spell worked?

Uncle grabbed his two dead animals and his bag, and went outside. He was still in Chinatown, San Francisco, except that it wasn't like the real deal – this one looked more like the aftermath of a war zone, with most of its buildings (his beloved store included) reduced to decaying ruins. People wandered around dressed in rags, reminding the old chi wizard of the clothes human wore in the world dominated by the Demon Sorcerers. The sky was dark, but not dark as in night, but as if the sky was covered with an unnatural veil of darkness. But the detail that caught Uncle's eye the most was a huge tower in the horizon, far away, but it's size made it possible to be seen from a great distance.

"What kind of place is this? Did Uncle enter Tohru's mind, or did he wander into another plane?" the old chi wizard mused.

Soon, he'd find out. He reached into his bag and pulled out a rudimentary compass, which was attuned with Tohru's chi, and would reveal if the Japanese giant was here. After swirling for a couple of seconds, the compass pointed towards the tower. While happy to see that Tohru was here, the prospect of going to that tower didn't appeal to Uncle one bit.

Following the compass, the old chi wizard traveled through the ruined streets of the apparently post-apocalyptic San Francisco. People looked at him with a mix of fear and confusion, since the old man stood out with his clean and intact clothes, as well as the weird artifacts he was carrying. His journey was stopped when he saw a statue that left him frozen in place.

It was a statue of a teenage Jade, wearing a long dress which Uncle recognized as the one she wore during her brief stint as Queen of the Shadowkhan, standing triumphant with her hands on her hips, her face sporting a wicked smile. Uncle looked for any kind of inscription that would reveal more about that mysterious statue, but found nothing. While he wasn't sure about the meaning of that statue, one thing was certain – it wasn't a good omen.

Uncle then remembered what he learned from the research about the Sacred Treasures. The Mirror Yata no Kagami, which represented wisdom, could be used to see whatever you wanted, like a crystal ball, however it also had the ability to show its user visions of the future. So, was this a vision of a possible future? Uncle decided that it was better not to think about it, and focused on his mission, to save Tohru.

…

After what seemed to be an eternity for Jade, Jackie told them to stop, announcing that they'd reached the Unseen Enclave. However, the place was honoring its name, and nothing resembling a mage hideout could be seen, only a vast dry land with a few rocks placed in a circle.

"Well, here we are. Any clues on how are we going to find the Enclave?" Viper asked.

"Maybe it's underground," Jade suggested.

"Probably, but still, there's nothing resembling a door or an entrance, other than this circle of rocks," Jackie said, "If we were in a mountain, we could look for caves or tunnels, but this is a desert. Though there is a small clue to find a Enclave."

"And that clue would be…?" Viper asked.

After rummaging through his pockets, Jackie pulled out a small sheet of paper and read aloud, "It's written in Persian, but the translation would be something like '_The sands of the desert will reveal the doors of the Sanctum when a shadow is cast over the Sun._'"

"Shadow over the sun? As in an eclipse?" Viper asked, hoping that that wasn't the meaning. They couldn't wait until a solar eclipse.

"No, the mages obviously entered this hideout on a daily basis, so they couldn't tie the doors to rare astronomical events. The first line, 'the sands of the desert will reveal the doors of the Sanctum', hint that the Enclave is indeed under the very sand under our feet. The second part is a riddle whose answer serves as the password to open the gates," the archeologist explained.

"So we have to figure out what or when a shadow is cast over the sun, and once we get the answer, what do we do, write it on the sand?" the thief asked.

"Why not? The Enclave is underground, which means that the land here must have some sort of spell that will disappear with the riddle's answer. Either that or we'll have to say the answer aloud," Jade interjected.

"I agree with Jade – it has to be something to be written in the sand. If the password had to be said aloud, it could be heard by unwanted guests, but something written in the sand can easily be erased."

"But we still don't know the answer either," Viper said as she sat down, "When does a shadow cover the sun? An eclipse is the only thing that I can think of, and it isn't even a real shadow, but the moon."

Jade then began to draw something in the sand inside the circle of rocks. It was a circle with some straight lines surrounding it, pointing to several directions; a picture of the sun. Jade stood over the picture in a way that her shadow covered it.

"See? I'm casting a shadow over the sun!" Jade said. However, nothing happened.

"I must admit that it isn't a bad idea, but I didn't expect it to work. The ancient Persians didn't depict the sun that way," Jackie said, crouching over Jade's picture. He removed the sunrays, and made a dot in the center of the circle. "This is one of the most ancient depictions of the sun, used in the Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, the Assyrian Empire and-"

Jackie's explanation was interrupted when the symbol he just drew began to glow and the earth beneath their feet began to shake. The dromedaries ran away in terror, and the humans looked for a safe place. The glowing symbol turned into a hole that started swallowing the sand, and expanded. After a couple of minutes, there was a huge cavity in the ground, looking like a tunnel entrance.

"We did it!" Jade said, jumping in joy and pumping her fist.

"Good job you two. You form a great team," Viper congratulated the Chans, a bit sad that she didn't contribute anything.

"Come on, this is just the beginning. Finding the entrance was just the first part. I wonder what kind of surprises the Enclave has for us," Jackie said as he walked towards the tunnel.

…

After much walking, Uncle finally found the place Tohru was located. The old man was relieved to see that his large apprentice wasn't inside the ominous tower, but in some sort of small fortress that served as a jail. Shadowkhan were carrying many chain-bound people inside.

Uncle did spot several kinds of Shadowkhan during his short stay here, some he already knew, like the ninjas used by Shendu, Jade's kunoichi or Wong's wizards. However, there were other new kinds of Shadowkhan that surprised and, in some cases, horrified the old chi wizard – there was one who looked like the ninja, only with several sharp knives instead of fingers, another one looked like a heavily armored samurai, another one like a bat-human hybrid…

There was no time to think about that. He had to get Tohru out of there if he ever wanted the Japanese giant to wake up. The prison, while small, was heavily guarded. If Jackie or that thief were here, they could easily find a way to sneak in, or fight the guards and get inside by force. But Uncle was too old for that, and the only thing he could think of was being thrown in there.

The old chi wizard began to attack the Shadowkhan left and right with chi blasts. Suddenly he was quickly surrounded. Uncle fell to his knees and held his arms out in surrender, dropping his blowfish chi blaster. He was afraid that the Shadowkhan would kill him instead of locking him up, but that was a gamble he had to take. Fortunately, he was quickly apprehended by a ninja and a samurai, which took him inside the prison, and threw him inside a jail cell. Uncle saw the Shadowkhan taking the blowfish and his bag to some sort of storage room.

Fortunately, the Shadowkhan didn't think about frisking him, because he had his other chi blaster hidden in his pants. After making sure that there were no guards nearby, he quickly blasted the door open with a chi beam, hoping that the noise wouldn't alert the Shadowkhan. Nobody tried to stop his escape, at least for the moment. However, if he ever wanted to find Tohru, he'd need the magic compass. The old man pulled something from a hidden pocket in his waistcoat – the Rabbit Talisman.

Using the talisman's super speed, Uncle found the storage room in no time. He easily dispelled the Shadowkhan guarding the door (these ones were black, vaguely humanoid figures with crab-like pincers) and retrieved his belongings. With the compass now back in his possession, he found Tohru in no time.

The Japanese giant was also in cell, sitting down on the floor looking sad. He was wearing the same rags everybody else was wearing.

"Tohru!" Uncle called.

His apprentice raised his head, and opened his eyes wide upon seeing Uncle.

"Sensei! You're alive!" the sumo said in joy.

"Of course I'm alive! Why wouldn't I be?" Uncle asked, mildly annoyed.

"But… she told me that all of you were dead…" Tohru began.

"Tohru, listen, this isn't real, but a dream! You were left in a coma by the Mirror, and Uncle used the Sheep Talisman to get inside your mind!"

"What? …No, this can't be a dream. I did wish this was only a nightmare, and that we didn't fail to cure Jade…"

Uncle knew he had to get his apprentice out of here as soon as possible, but curiosity got the best of him.

"Tohru, what happened with Jade? How did we fail to cure her?"

"I… I don't remember everything, my memory is a bit foggy… all I remember is that everything went badly after gathering the Treasures. I remember that we tried to stop Wong from acquiring a great power related to the Shadowkhan… we fought with all our might, but we couldn't beat him… it was only thanks to Jade that he was defeated but… but Jade was consumed by the shadows, and became the Queen once again. She claimed the same power Wong was trying to unleash for herself, and covered the world in darkness. There was nothing we could do. And she killed you, Jackie, and Viper among many others… I don't know why she decided to let me live, but given the circumstances, I would have preferred if she had ended my life like she did with the others…"

That was all that Uncle needed to hear. If this truly was a vision from the future, then he'd do everything in his power to stop it. He pulled out his lizard, and blasted the door open.

"Tohru, we're getting you out of here!"

"But where are we going to go? The entire world is under Jade's control, we can't-" Tohru said before being slapped by Uncle.

"I already told you that this is not real! Now come on, we have to find an exit!"

Tohru decided to follow his sensei, mostly because the old man seemed so sure this wasn't real that he may be right, but also because he feared a storm of two-finger slaps if he kept contradicting him. Of course, many Shadowkhan tried to intercept their escape, but the duo was strong enough to deal with them. Several ninja were about to cast a rain of shuriken over them, but Tohru was quick enough to tear apart a nearby door and use it as a shield that blocked the deadly steel stars. Meanwhile, Uncle dispelled the ninjas. They kept advancing, Tohru smashing all the Shadowkhan in his way, and Uncle covering him from behind. In no time, they were out of the prison.

"Tohru, catch!" Uncle said as he tossed the Rabbit Talisman at his large apprentice.

The Japanese giant picked Uncle up and ran off with his super speed. After half a minute of running at imperceptible speed, they reached an isolated alleyway, where they would be safe for some time.

"That was close. Do you see anymore Shadowkhan, Tohru?" the old chi wizard asked.

"No, but there's only a matter of time before they find us," Tohru said while he looked around for possible pursuers. Then he turned to his master and said, "We can't hide in the shadows; they belong to them."

"We're not going to hide. As Uncle has already said, we're going to leave this place," Uncle said as he started rummaging through his bag.

"But sensei, if this is a dream, how is that I can't wake up?" The sumo asked.

"Uncle does not know! But that's not important, finding a way out of here is!" Uncle said, until he finally found what he was looking for – another compass, different from the one he had used to track Tohru, "Somewhere in this place, there is a magic portal that, if we cross it, will lead us back to the real world."

"Maybe you're right. Besides, there are no talking Shadowkhan."

Uncle cast his large apprentice a dubious glare. "Come again?"

"There are Shadowkhan who are sentient… they can speak and have human intelligence. They're called the Higher Shadowkhan, I think. They have control over the minions, just like Jade or Shendu had."

"This vision is proving to be more interesting each moment, as well as more dangerous. Come, we have to find the portal as soon as possible."

"Alright, then let's get moving."

"One more thing! We can't use the Rabbit Talisman, since we'd be moving too fast for the compass to work. One more thing! The compass emits strong good chi magic waves that will reveal our position to the Shadowkhan. We will be like a lighthouse in the middle of the night. But if we keep moving, they'll have a harder time tracking us."

Tohru nodded in response. Uncle activated his second magic compass, and followed its indications, hoping to find the magic gate before the Shadowkhan could stop them.

…

Meanwhile, in the real world, Jackie, Jade, and Viper finally accessed the Unseen Enclave. The tunnel descended until finally opening into a wide passage, whose walls were carved with many pictures of wizards casting spells and fighting against many enemies, genies being summoned, and inscriptions in the Persian language. Jackie illuminated the walls with his flashlight and came closer to inspect the writings.

"Can you translate it?" Viper asked, "Does it say anything of interest?"

"No, these are just tales of past wizards, and some discoveries regarding magic," the archeologist said, "Actually, I was looking for something that would tell us if this place has any kind of guardian."

"Guardian?"

"When we tried to stop Wong from claiming the Ring of Kur-Asan, the chamber that held the ring had a giant scorpion guarding it," Jade explained to Viper, who looked a bit distressed.

"And how did you defeat it?"

"We didn't. It was Wong who destroyed it," Jackie answered.

"But this time will be different. We have three badass fighters, several talismans, and a group of Shadowkhan in case things get really ugly," Jade said, not only cheerful but thrilled at the perspective of a good fight.

"Be careful. There may or may not be a guardian, but I'm certainly sure that this place is infested with traps. For example, do you see those two statues?" Jackie asked, as he pointed out to two statues of wizards at each side of the passage. Jackie picked up a small stone from the floor, and tossed it forward. The moment the stone passed between the statues, the statues' eyes shot powerful heat beams that blew the stone into dust.

"Yeah, crossing that is going to be a challenge," Jade said, raising an eyebrow.

"Less than you think," Viper said as she rushed towards the statues.

"Viper, wait!" Jackie said, trying to grab the thief when she went past him.

Viper quickly grabbed another rock from the floor and tossed it at the statues at the same time she leaped between them, doing an impressive somersault. The heat beams blew up this rock as well, but didn't have time to shoot Viper, who safely passed to the other side.

"See? Easy. I guessed they couldn't aim for two targets at the same time, and I was right," Viper said as she cockily smiled.

"You could have told me about your idea first. You almost gave me a heart attack!" Jackie said, frowning.

"Ancient tombs and ruins aren't that different from museums, after all. Treasures protected by devices meant to keep looters away," Viper casually commented.

"Except that museums' security systems aren't lethal."

"That only adds to the challenge!" Viper replied happily, much to Jackie's chagrin, who sighed in defeat.

"Come on Jackie, she's just teasing you," Jade said. Then she turned to the thief and asked, "So, now you throw another rock at the same time we pass, right?"

"Right," Viper said as she picked up another stone.

Jackie didn't let Jade to jump on her own (despite Jade's protests of having the Dog Talisman), and carried her on his back. After Viper threw the stone bait for the statues, Jackie and Jade were in the other side.

"Shall we continue?"

Of course, there were many other traps set across the passage, such as the classical hidden arrow shooter, crushing walls, and a trapdoor leading to a pit full of nasty looking black bugs. However, thanks to Jackie's vast experience, they avoided them all without trouble, finally reaching a large door. Jackie started to inspect the door in search of hidden switches or the like.

"You know, I could kick that door down," Viper suggested.

"There's no need for that. This place has high archeological value, and if we can get Solomon's Archive without breaking anything, the better," Jackie replied, not taking his eyes from the door.

"Can't help but wonder, why did they put so many traps here? I thought that with that secret entrance it wouldn't be necessary," Jade wondered.

"Who knows, maybe in case someone kidnapped a mage and forced him to reveal the location of this place," Viper replied.

"Too bad Uncle didn't come. He knows pretty much everything about anything magical."

"Still, I'm sure we can pull this one off without his help. I mean, we took down Origami, and neither of us had magic."

"Opened!" Jackie said, after finding a hidden switch that opened the large stone gate.

The stone gate slowly opened with a cracking noise, revealing a huge chamber. Suddenly, several torches lit by themselves, illuminating the entire chamber, which was a huge platform standing on a sea of flowing sand, with three bridges that connected the platform with other sides of the instance, and many sand-waterfalls covering the walls. The group of three advanced towards the center of the platform, where Jackie examined the inscriptions on the platform.

"Alright, according to this symbols, the library is to the left," Jackie said.

Viper and Jade nodded, and followed the archeologist to the left path. And just as Jackie said, they arrived to a large library. Such a place would have marveled Jackie in other circumstances, given the large number of ancient texts, books and scrolls – in fact, he was indeed marveled – but right now his mind was focused on finding the Archive, since it was their only hope to recover the Ring of Kur-Asan, and turn Jade back to normal. Maybe in the future he could come back and examine the place properly.

"Alright, hopefully Solomon's Archive will be here. Let's be patient, it could take us hours before we find-"

"Is this it?" Jade asked, holding up a big, ornamented tome between her hands.

"You have to be kidding me," Jackie said, completely dumbstruck, causing Viper to chuckle.

It was, indeed, the book they were looking for. Solomon's Archive was a book made exclusively from metal (bronze, to be precise), its few pages included. The cover was red, with golden ornaments, the most notable being the Star of David in the center, and another inscription in a language Jackie couldn't read.

"This is Hebrew," Jackie said, passing a finger over the inscription, "We'll need someone to translate it. Fortunately, I have a friend who-"

"It says '_He who gains wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers_'," Viper said as she read it, "But don't take my word for it, my Hebrew is a bit rusty." [1]

"You… you know Hebrew?" Jackie asked, even more astonished.

"My father taught me, as a part of my Jewish upbringing. I was born in the States, but he's from Israel, and thought that I should knew 'the language of my ancestors'." [2]

"Didn't know you were Jewish. Not that I have a problem with it!" Jackie quickly added.

"I know you don't. And I have to admit that I'm not very devout," Viper said with a smile, "Anyway, can we leave? My clothes are full of sand."

However, the moment they left the library, a loud, angry, booming voice speaking in an unknown language echoed through the chamber, making it tremble.

"What's going on?" Jade asked, as she clung to Jackie's leg.

"We're being accused of thievery, probably because we took the Archive. The Enclave's guardian will deal with us," Jackie explained, trying his hardest to keep calm.

"Guardian?" Viper asked.

"Please not another giant scorpion, please not another giant scorpion…" Jade pleaded.

A huge fire appeared in the middle of the central platform, and from the fire a figure emerged. It was a red skinned humanoid, with glowing yellow eyes, multiple horns, surrounded by an aura of flames.

"Alright, maybe a giant scorpion wasn't so bad after all…"

"What the hell is that!?" Viper asked as she adopted a fighting pose, even if she doubted martial arts would be of any use against that fire monster.

"An efreet, a kind of genie. I read that magicians of the Middle East sometimes captured or enslaved the efreets to use them for their purposes," Jackie said.

"That's interesting and all, but how do we kill it?" Jade asked, nervous.

"Efreets are immortal, they can't be killed."

"WHAT!?" Jade and Viper asked in unison.

"Then what are we going to do!?" Viper asked.

The efreet generated two wings made of pure fire, and dived at the trio. Jackie grabbed Jade and rolled on the floor, avoiding the flying fire demon, followed by Viper.

"The efreet is this place's guardian, so if we leave this place he will leave us alone!" Jackjie suggested.

They rushed towards the chamber's exit, but the efreet guessed their intentions, and threw a fireball at the roof over the exit. Several rocks fell from the roof, blocking the exit.

"Right, grabbing the book and leaving was just too easy…" Viper said, unnerved.

Jackie and Viper adopted a combat pose. Jade did so as well after transforming into a Shadowkhan. Unimpressed, the efreet threw a fireball at them, forcing them to scatter, and the hellish genie targeted Jackie, who took shelter behind a column near the entrance to the center of the platform. Jackie spotted a shield hanging on a column, and decided to use it to protect himself against the efreet's attacks, but couldn't do much else.

"You leave my uncle alone!" Jade said as she performed several hand seals.

Upon finishing, she placed her hands mimicking a gun and shot a purple lightning bolt at the efreet. This caused the efreet to forget about Jackie and go after Jade. The efreet attacked Jade with fireballs like he did to Jackie before. Jade managed to dodge them, and reply with either bolts of purple lightning, or dark chi blasts. Some of the attacks did hit the efreet, but none of them were strong enough to put him out of commission. The Shadowkhan girl tripped while dodging attacks, leaving her vulnerable for a moment, which was used by the efreet to throw a rather large fireball at her. Fortunately, she was quick enough roll away, and leaped away from the efreet, but she was now away from the adults in one of the bridges.

"Jade! Summon your Shadowkhan and get us out of here!" Viper shouted, who was still in the central platform.

"First we need to be together! Come to me!" Jade said as she summoned five Kunoichi Khan, "Go and distract that monster!"

The five kunoichi leaped at the efreet. The fire monster blasted two of them with a fireball, but couldn't stop the other three, who dropkicked him hard. The efreet then flew upwards, and began to recite an incantation. None of them liked that.

Suddenly, the flowing sand river below them began to shake, and multiple horrifying looking ghouls emerged from it, surrounding the three of them. The ghouls themselves weren't much of a threat, and the three heroes could fend them off rather easily – especially Jade, who was having the time of her life showcasing her magic abilities – but they kept them busy and distracted, and thus vulnerable to the efreet's attacks. The demonic genie seemed to have an irrational hate of Jackie – or maybe not so, given that it was him who took the book out of the library, and the one currently holding it – and flew towards him and bombarded him with fireballs. However, Jackie dodged all the fireballs aimed at him, many of them setting the ghouls on fire. Jackie then threw the shield at the efreet, hitting it in the face, and took advantage of the demon's predicament to quickly run past the ghouls and towards Jade.

Angered, the efreet commanded the ghouls to follow him, as he himself did, but before he could catch Jackie he was blasted away by a fire stream.

"Who would guess? You can fight fire with fire after all," Viper said, as she also made her way towards Jade.

The three heroes finally regrouped, and now Jade could take everybody to safety. She ordered one of her Shadowkhan to drop whatever she was doing – fighting ghouls – and to take them out of there via shadow travel. The remaining Shadowkhan managed to keep the efreet and the ghouls away from the trio, who successfully escaped.

Letting out a roar of fury, the efreet threw a fireball at the spot the intruders had been standing in less than a second ago.

…

Meanwhile, inside Tohru's mind, Uncle and Tohru were traveling the streets of San Franciso, looking for the exit portal. They had to fight some groups of Shadowkhan here and there, but nothing they couldn't deal with.

"The portal is near, Tohru! Keep moving!" Uncle said, checking his compass.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by a large group formed by different Shadowkhan, who glared at them with their red eyes devoid of any emotion. Both chi wizards adopted a fighting pose, ready for the living shadows to attack, but they didn't make any move.

"What are they waiting for? They want us to strike first?" Uncle pondered.

Suddenly, a chill-inducing female laughter echoed through the air. Tohru started to tremble.

"S-sensei! It's… it's her!"

Uncle looked upwards, and saw a Shadowkhan woman floating above them. The woman was wearing a purple leotard and a long black cape split into several parts that seemed to have a life on its own. Upon descending, Uncle recognized the woman in question.

"Aiyaaaaaaah! Jade!"

"It's _Empress_ Jade, now," Jade said.

His great niece had grown up quite a bit, the old chi wizard guessing that she was fifteen or sixteen years old. She had a slender body and glowing red eyes, but the same hairstyle as her preteen self.

"When my watchers told me that you were alive, I didn't believe them, but then I heard news about a good chi wizard wreaking havoc among my Shadowkhan, and had to come to see with my own eyes if you were alive. Guess that you've been hiding all these years preparing your return. Tell me Uncle, how did you survive?" Jade asked.

"That's not important!" Uncle shouted, before he turned at Tohru and whispered, "I'll held her here. You go and find the portal."

"F-fight HER!? But sensei, she'll kill you!" Tohru said.

"You should listen to the fatass, Uncle. I already beat you the last time we fought, and I'm much more powerful now."

"If you find and cross the portal before she kills me, we both will be back in the real world!" Uncle said, "Now go!"

Uncle shot a chi blast at some of the Shadowkhan behind him, creating a gap that Tohru, activating the Rabbit Talisman's super speed, used to escape.

"That was the Rabbit Talisman? Impossible, I have all of them locked up!" Jade said, astonished.

"You always thought that you knew everything, Jade, that you were smarter than everyone else! But you're not smarter than Uncle! One more thing! What do you have against shoes?" Uncle asked, pointing at Jade's bare feet. [3]

Jade clenched her teeth, snaring at Uncle. "Who cares about smarts? I'm much more powerful than you, and that's what it matters! And my feet never touch the ground so I have no need of footgear! And since it pisses you off so much, I will dance over your body with my bare feet before sending you to the afterlife! Shadowkhan, withdraw! I need no help in dealing with this old geezer!"

The Shadowkhan disappeared, leaving Jade and Uncle alone with each other. Jade elevated several meters as she raised her hand and created a purple energy sphere in it. The sphere exploded, releasing multiple purple energy bolts upwards before finally falling over Uncle, like a deadly rain. Uncle managed to outrun the falling starbolts, and shot a chi blast at Jade. However, the Shadowkhan teen parried the attack with her bare hands.

"I already told you, old man, I'm too much for you!" Jade said.

Jade then spread her arms, and the strands of her cape grew in size and launched themselves against Uncle as if they were tentacles. Uncle fended off the tentacles with chi blasts, but a well-timed lashing disarmed the old man, and soon two other tentacles wrapped against him, pinning his arms against his body, and brought him closer to Jade.

"You and your dead animals. You should have looked for better alternatives to cast magic," Jade said as she laughed, "This time, I'll make sure that you stay dead. But there's something I want to know that I didn't have the chance to ask you the last time we met. How does it feel to know that you could have prevented all this?"

"What are you talking about?" Uncle asked. He was hoping that Jade would reveal some crucial moment that would mark the heroes' defeat and her permanent corruption that could be changed in the real world.

"Don't pretend that you don't know!" Jade yelled in his face, "If you had chosen me as an apprentice instead of that lardball, none of this would have happened! I would have been your greatest apprentice! The most powerful defender of good!"

"You talk as if you didn't want this to happen, but you're the one solely responsible," Uncle said. He had to buy some time for Tohru to find the portal before Jade decided to deliver the killing strike.

"I didn't want to… at first. But you rejected me! The shadows welcomed me with open arms when the light turned its back on me."

"You killed Jackie. Jackie was good; Jackie loved you. Why Jade?"

"He was an obstacle to my plans. I didn't wish him his fate, but there was no other option. Besides, Jackie was just one man, something too insignificant to let stay in the way between me and the greatness I was destined to achieve. Even after being turned into a Shadowkhan, he kept fighting me. But don't worry Uncle, since you loved your nephew so much, you will join him soon."

One of the tentacles that formed Jade's cape grew a sharp point, and reared itself backwards.

"So long, old man!" Jade said as she prepared to kill him.

"NYAR!" Tohru roared as he tackled Jade as an amazing speed.

Jade was thrown backwards as if she had been hit by a speeding train. Uncle was released from her grip. Tohru immediately went to check on his master, who rewarded his heroic rescue with a two-finger slap.

"Tohru, why are you still here!? Uncle told you to find the portal!" Uncle said to Tohru in a reprimanding tone.

"I know, but I can't find the portal! It's not here!"

"It has to be here!"

"You… will pay for that," Jade said as she stood up, holding her head in pain. She was sporting a psychotic smile, "Ohhhhhh, how beautiful, the apprentice comes to save his master. I see that you want to die together."

Jade then did a long sequence of hand seals at an amazing speed, and spread her arms.

"I will crush you with a force you can't even imagine!" Jade yelled.

Suddenly, large chunks of the ground and surrounding buildings were torn apart and elevated into the air, until floating rocks and debris blocked the entire street. Jade brought her arms down, and the large rocks, scrap, and debris fell to the ground. Tohru grabbed Uncle, and with the Rabbit's super speed, he managed to avoid the deadly storm. When it finished, there were huge holes in the ground, revealing the sewers. Something caught Uncle's eye.

"Tohru, over there!" Uncle said, pointing to one of the openings to the sewer.

Tohru looked in the direction his sensei was pointing, and saw what looked to be a dimensional gate.

"Is that…?" the Japanese giant asked.

"Yes! Now go!"

"No, you won't go anywhere! Shadowkhan, stop them!" Jade shouted as she summoned an army of many Shadowkhan tribes around her.

"Jade, before we depart, let me tell you something," Uncle said in a soft tone, "Uncle loves you, and will do his best to make sure that you don't turn out like this."

With that, Tohru and Uncle crossed the portal at an imperceptible speed.

"NOOOOOOooooooooo…" Jade yelled as everything faded to white.

…

Two days later, Jackie, Jade, and Viper returned from their trip to Turkey, with Solomon's Archive in their luggage.

"Uncle, we're back!" Jackie said as he entered the store.

"Hello Jackie. Uncle told me you were to look for Solomon's Archive in Turkey. Did you find it?"

Much to everyone's surprise, it was Tohru who greeted them. The Japanese giant was again awake and on his feet.

"TOHRU!" Jade shouted with a squee as she threw herself at his neck and hugged him, "I'm so happy to see that you're okay!"

"We're all happy that Tohru is back," Uncle said as he walked in, "Do you have the Archive?"

"Yes, it's in my backpack. Now if you excuse us, we're going back to Section 13, to leave the book there and have some rest," Jackie said.

"We will go there and examine the book in a couple of hours," Uncle said.

Jackie, Jade and Viper left the store and headed for Section 13, leaving Uncle and his large apprentice alone.

"Sensei… you didn't tell them about the vision," Tohru said.

"No. They were tired; it wasn't the right moment. Maybe tomorrow."

"What if… we can't save Jade, and the future is what the Mirror showed us?" Tohru inquired, unnerved.

"We must save Jade, Tohru. For both her and everyone's sake. Now that we have the Archive, we have a chance to recover the Ring of Kur-Asan. We must not make mistakes, or the entire world will be devoured by darkness."

**[1]: Proverbs, 19.8**

**[2]: In "A Jolly J-Team X-Mas", Viper was hosting a Hanukkah party, hinting that she may be Jewish.**

**[3]: In China and other parts of Asia, bare feet are considered obscene, almost like if a woman showed her breasts. Or so I heard.**

**Authro's note: And Tohru is finally back to normal! Yay! And they have Solomon's Archive! Double yay! And apparently their efforts to cure Jade will be doomed to fail and the world will be taken over by her!...yay? So, I leave you with the question of Tohru's vision of the future can be changed or not.**

Uncle and Tohru barely did anything in the previous chapter, so I hope that all the action they got here made up for that. This chapter also allowed me to dig into Jackie's background as an archeologist, even if not much, as well a develop Viper a bit more (God, I love to write for her)

Next chapter will be a little different, as it will explore the Phantom's backstory, and Jackie, Jade and the others won't appear, but I assure you that you won't get bored. So until next Friday! And please, don't forget to review!


	11. Tale of a Fallen Hero

**Chapter 11: Tale of a Fallen Hero**

_**Kyoto, Japan. Sometime between IX and X Centuries:**_

Kyosuke was certainly impressed. He had already been told about the beauty of the Imperial Palace, but this was too much. It was bigger than any house he'd been in, beautifully decorated with many vases, sculptures, paintings, candelabrum and other pieces of the finest craft.

"Don't stare and drool, Kysosuke-kun. I know the greatness of this place may overwhelm you, but you wouldn't make a good impression acting like that," his companion said. He was a man much older than him, maybe in his late forties or early fifties, with short black hair that was starting to turn gray, a mustache and a goatee.

"I'm sorry, sensei. It's just… I couldn't imagine that such a place could exist," Kyosuke apologized.

For all his life, Kyosuke had an austere life. His rough childhood forced him to conform to life with as little struggle as possible, and while the rest of the soldiers of his battalion under the High Shogun Yoshinoya of the Taira Clan usually complained about the awful barracks they lived in, for Kyosuke it was all he needed. Still, it was hard to believe that such a big and luxurious palace, that could house dozens of people, was reserved for the Emperor, his wife, and his six sons and daughters.

Kyosuke was Yoshinoya's best soldier. He was such a skilled fighter that the Shogun took him as a personal pupil, not only training him in the art of battle, but as well as other subjects such as philosophy, religion, history and diplomacy. Yoshinoya deeply believed that a true warrior was also an educated man who knew to use his brain before his sword.

Plus, Kyosuke was extremely attractive. He had recently become thirty-one, but he didn't look older than twenty. He was tall and slender, with brown eyes and long black hair that he usually had tied in a ponytail. His companions told him that there were hundreds of girls (many of them being part of rich and influential noble families) interested in marrying him. But Kyosuke's only love was his katana.

And now, he was about to meet the Emperor himself, who was a personal friend of his sensei. Yoshinoya have talked a lot with the Emperor about a "young prodigy" he had, and the Emperor had interest in him. There were rumors that, when Yoshinoya finally retired, Kyosuke would take his mantle.

"Remember the protocol, Kyosuke-kun. Bow before the Emperor the moment you see him, and stay that way until he tells you to stand up. Do not speak until he speaks you, and when you address him, remember to do so by the proper title. Do you understand?" Yoshinoya asked.

"I do, sensei," Kyosuke said, rolling his eyes, before adding, "I got it the first ten times you told me."

Yoshinoya knew that, while his student was a swordsman like no other, he lacked a lot in other respects. Kyosuke already had quite a history of disrespecting feudal lords and other nobles by being too casual with them. Maybe it was Yoshinoya's fault, for allowing him to act casually in his presence.

Finally, they reached the throne room, an immense chamber just as magnificently decorated as the rest of the palace, filled with servants that would attend the Emperor and his family, many royal guards that watched over the Imperial Family every second, and at the end of the room, sitting in a throne, the Emperor himself.

Yoshinoya and Kyosuke bowed before him just as the former had said. The Emperor, with a bright smile on his face, got up from his throne and went to salute his friend.

"Stand up, my dear guests," The Emperor said.

"Your Imperial Highness," Yoshinoya said as he stood up.

"Ah, Yoshinoya-san, why don't you come to visit me more often? I miss those times when you were my personal bodyguard."

"With all due respect, Your Highness, but I serve you better by securing your reign out there, than protecting your life within the safe walls of this palace."

By the Emperor's attitude, it was obvious that he and Yoshinoya were close friends, but the Shogun refused to address his Emperor with less respect than a man of his position deserved.

"Now that you mention that, sometimes I wish that somebody tried an attempt against my life. You know, to have some excitement in my life."

"With all due respect Your Highness, you shouldn't wish such a thing."

"Ha! You say that because you already got your dose of action out there. If you were in my shoes you would think otherwise," The Emperor said. Then he turned at Kyosuke and asked, "So, he's the boy you constantly brag about? What's your name?"

"My name is Kyosuke, Your Imperial Highness. Let me add that I am immensely honored by your presence," Kyosuke said with artificial politeness. He was obviously not used to talking in such a way.

"I see. You know Yoshinoya-san, he looks too young to be your successor, regardless of how skilled he is in battle."

"He's older than he looks, Your Highness. He's past thirty already, and has plenty of experience, both as a warrior and as tactician. I believe he will be a worthy successor," the old samurai said.

"I will take your word for it. Say boy, are you married?" The Emperor asked.

"I'm afraid not, Your Highness," Kyosuke replied.

"Excellent! What do you say about marrying one of my daughters? The eldest one is already betrothed, but when the youngest one reaches womanhood, you will marry her. I'm sure she will be a real beauty, just like her mother. So what do you say?"

"It would be an honor, Your Highness. But maybe we should also ask her opinion. I don't want any woman to marry me against her will."

Yoshinoya's eyes looked like they were going to come out of their sockets when the old samurai heard what his student was saying. Fortunately, the Emperor simply burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha! Ask for her opinion, he says! You never told me that your student was such a comedian besides a fine warrior!" The Emperor said between laughs, "Hehe, it's obvious that being in the battlefield and away from civilization for so much time has disconnected you from the world. Boy, you don't need to ask a woman permission for anything. If I allow you to marry my daughter, then she has no option but to obey. So, are you going to marry my daughter or not?"

"As I said before, it will be an honor, Your Highness," Kyosuke replied.

"Perfect! I'm sure my daughter will be exhilarated when I tell her the news! Now, I'm sorry to say that I cannot dedicate more time to you, but this Empire won't govern itself. And Yoshinoya, it is your Emperor's will that you come to see him more often! Wars and battles aren't an excuse!" The Emperor said before leaving with a couple of counselors.

Kyosuke, noticing that he almost screwed up before, turned to Yoshinoya and said, "I'm sorry, sensei. I embarrassed you in front of the Emperor."

Yoshinoya appeared like he was about to reprimand him, but in the end he didn't. "I guess it's my fault for not telling you about that properly. The Emperor is right, a life far away from the cities and towns of our Empire can't be good. There's a reason why I want you to be more educated than the average soldier. When you take my place as the High Shogun, you will have to be very careful about what you say."

"Don't worry, sensei. It won't happen again."

"I'm sure it won't. We should be thankful, that slip could have turned out much worse. Come, I think I need some fresh air."

"Me too, sensei."

They exited the palace and went to their usual sparring spot, at the top of a low grassy hill. After an hour or so trading sword swings, they decided to rest. Yoshinoya decided to strike up some conversation.

"So, what do you think about the Emperor, Kyosuke-kun? Now you can talk unrestricted, nobody will hear you."

"To be fair, I wasn't impressed. He isn't what I was expecting."

"And what were you expecting, may I ask?"

"Well, it's a bit complicated to put it with words, sensei. The Emperor is the most powerful man of Japan. Thousands of brave and skilled warriors serve him, willing to give his life for him. I expected him to look… less mundane. He didn't look different than the head of any noble house. I expected him to irradiate an aura of power; that his mere presence would force me to bow before him, to make me rejoice the fact that he allowed me to be in his presence… but none of that happened. Master, why is he the Emperor?"

"You should know already. Because his father before him was the Emperor."

"And why was his father the Emperor?" Kyosuke said. Feeling that he would get the same answer, he changed his question, "One of his ancestors was the first Emperor, right? So, why was that man the Emperor?"

Yoshinoya shot his student a reprising look. "Have you forgotten your history lessons so easily?"

"You know me, sensei. I prefer the sword over the books."

"One day I will finally make you understand the importance of knowledge and wisdom," the old samurai said, and sighed, "Before Japan was the glorious Empire it is today, it was composed of many clans in disarray that constantly fought for supremacy. Until one day, the gods sent a harbinger of peace to us. His name was Ninigini-no-Mikoto, grandson of the goddess Amaterasu, sent to pacify the clans and unite them in a single Empire. Amaterasu gave him three celestial gifts, one for each of the three primary virtues every Emperor has to possess – the Sword of Kusanagi, which represented valor, the mirror Yata no Kagami, which represented wisdom, and the jewel Yasanaki no Magatama, which represented benevolence. Those three gifts are the regalia of the Emperor, and their possession is what grants a man the dominion of Japan."

"So, if somebody stole those treasures, that person would be the new Emperor?"

"Of course not, Kyosuke-kun. The gifts were also the proof that the Emperor and his lineage were chosen by the gods. Merely stealing them wouldn't change that. In fact, it would probably corrupt their divine power."

"Sensei, the first Emperor ended the war of the clans and created a glorious Empire. But what have his descendants done to deserve their position?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm saying that the Emperor is Emperor because he had the luck to be born into the Imperial Family. He did nothing to earn such a title."

"Watch your tongue, my disciple. Such words could be considered treason. The clans swore loyalty to the first Emperor, as well as his descendants. That's why we must serve them!"

"But… but that goes against everything you taught me, sensei! You always told me about self-sacrifice and hard work to reach my goals. Just like you! You were the bastard son of a peasant, yet look at where you are now! And we must serve a common man for no reason?"

"He's the Emperor, not a common man! And that's the only reason we need to serve him!" Yoshinoya exploded. He breathed heavily, trying to calm himself, and said, "This conversation is over. Meet me tomorrow at dawn at the barracks. I will assign you a mission of utter importance."

And Yoshinoya left. The next day would be the last day he would see his student.

_**Ten Years Later:**_

Yoshinoya was looking at the valley that soon would be a battlefield. Behind him there were two thousand of his best warriors. He wondered if that would be enough for the fight that was about to happen.

"There they are," one of his samurai informed him.

Yoshinoya narrowed his eyes, and indeed saw somebody at the other side of the valley, a small group no bigger than twenty-five people.

"My lord, are these Shadowkhan that powerful? Because I don't know how twenty men hope to stand against the Empire's finest army," the samurai commented.

"Yes. Yes they are," Yoshinoya said with a sad tone, "Prepare my horse. I'll meet his leader and offer him the terms of surrender."

"My lord, they won't accept them."

"I know. But it's what my duty demands."

The old Shogun rode his horse to the middle of the valley. Despite the trip taking no longer than five minutes, it seemed like days for Yoshinoya. After a few moments, a pool of darkness appeared before him, and from that pool a man emerged. Yoshinoya's steed reared up when the Shadowkhan appeared, unnerved by the demon's presence.

"Yoshinoya-sensei. It has been some time, hasn't it?" Kyosuke said, "I see some gray in your hair. The years haven't been kind to you."

"Your betrayal caused me more pain than a thousand katanas," Yoshinoya said, sounding half-spiteful and half-sorrowful, "And I'm not the only one who has changed, Kyosuke-kun."

"It's Kyosuke the Dark Champion now. You know, I never got the chance to thank you for sending me to spy on the Shadowkhan. They opened my eyes, and made me realize my potential. And such potential won't be wasted serving a man that did nothing to get what he has."

Kyosuke still looked like a twenty year old despite being past forty. However, his skin was now blue, his eyes solid red, and his hair, still long and tied in a ponytail, was white as snow. He was wearing black leather armor that covered his whole body, leaving only the head exposed, a silver chest plate over the leather armor, and gauntlets and boots of the same color. There was a katana on his back, a small black buckler attached to his belt, and a magatama jewel hanging from his neck.

"Let me guess, you're about to offer me terms of surrender, aren't you? Always by the book, Yoshinoya-sensei. Come on then, let's get this over with."

"First of all, you will return the stolen Sacred Treasures. Second, you and your followers will surrender yourselves to the Emperor, and you will be judged for all your crimes against the Empire. The Emperor will decide what sentence fits you best. Do you accept the terms of surrender?"

"You should know the answer. Here are _my_ terms – first, you and your forces will surrender to us. As a gesture of kindness, and in honor to you, my mentor, you will all be spared. Then, the Emperor will abdicate the throne, and will send letters to all the governors of the prefectures that must be read to the people in public, admitting that he isn't worthy of being the ruler of the Empire. Then the Emperor will declare the Brotherhood of Shadows the new rulers of Japan. All the people who support the new order will be spared. All opposition will be killed. Do you accept the terms of surrender?"

"The answer is no," was Yoshinoya's firm answer.

"Why do you do this, Yoshinoya-sensei? He's not worth of your loyalty. The Emperor is probably now drinking tea and walking carefree through the gardens of his palace while he sent you here to die in his name. Please sensei, don't do it."

"I taught you the value of hard work and sacrifice. My greatest failure is that I wasn't able to teach you to understand the value of loyalty and honor." Kyosuke frowned at his mentor's answer.

"Then go back with your men, and admire this beautiful day, for it will be your last," Kyosuke said in a menacing and spiteful tone, before vanishing into a shadow.

The Dark Champion appeared before his men, and said three words that would mark the beginning of a cruel battle.

"Summon the shadows."

On his way back, Yoshinoya thought of all the events that had happened in the past decade. He sent Kyosuke to infiltrate the Brotherhood of Shadows, so he could destroy them from the inside. However, Kyosuke decided to become one of them. He learned their dark arts, and rose to the position of leader in almost no time. Finally, he revealed his treason by stealing the Scared Treasures. Thanks to his apprentice, the Brotherhood rose to become a threat for the whole country, a threat that had to be stopped. But even if his former apprentice turned the Brotherhood into a superpower, he had still failed to lead them in a successful campaign of conquest.

However, things changed in the past year. The Shadowkhan's attacks had become much more effective and ruthless. Rumors said that the Brotherhood had made a deal with a race of demons that were helping them to claim Japan. The Kiso Valley was the only thing that stopped them from marching into Kyoto and claiming the Empire as theirs. They had to be stopped, no matter how many men would die today.

"General Sakuragi, are the monks in position?" Yoshonoya asked.

"Yes my lord. They will enter the battle as soon you command it," the samurai named Sakuragi replied.

"And the shinobi?"

"We believe they haven't been spotted yet."

"Good. The holy men and the assassins are our only chances at victory here."

Sakuragi narrowed his eyes. "What's that?"

Yoshinoya turned around to see what had caught his subordinate's attention. On the other side of the valley, something akin to a black blot was spreading. Soon, everyone realized that the black blot was actually a horde of demonic creatures being summoned by the Shadowkhan. The combined power of twenty of them could already summon a massive army. The Shadowkhan army was moving forward, charging against them. The Shadowkhan wizards and Kyosuke stayed in the back, managing their troops.

"They're advancing. Which are your orders?" Sakuragi asked.

"Our troops will charge as well," Yoshinoya ordered.

"But… with all due respect, my lord, that's an awful decision. We still have the high ground. We should let them come and let the archers decimate them before engaging them in direct combat."

"Thanks for your input, Sakuragi-san, but that strategy won't work on the Shadowkhan. Now order a charge."

"But… many of our men will die!"

Yoshinoya turned at him with a stern expression in his eyes. "I know. All of us will die today. But our deaths won't be in vain if we can save the Empire. Now order that charge."

The human and Shadowkhan armies clashed, engaging in a brutal melee. Yoshinoya himself decided to lead his men from the front, and the brave samurai weren't afraid of the monstrous creatures the Shadowkhan wizards had conjured. But valor alone wasn't going to win the battle, and the Shogun knew this.

"Now is the time! The monks and the ninjas must act now!" Yoshinoya shouted.

One of his horsemen nodded, and retreated back to communicate his lord's orders.

Back at the other side of the valley, Kyosuke and his fellow Shadowkhan were contemplating the battle unfolding. Their Shadowkhan minions clearly dominated the battlefield. Moral was high among the dark wizards.

"They're falling like flies. You were right, Kyosuke-sama, you didn't even need to summon your own Shadowhan," one of the Shadowkhan wizards said.

"This is too easy. I don't think we're even going to need Tarakudo's help," another one of the Shadowkhan mages said.

"Don't understimate Yoshinoya. If he decided to face us it is because he has a plan he believes can grant him victory. He's the most cunning and skilled warrior I have had the honor to meet," Kyosuke said in a chiding tone, "It's a pity it had to end this way."

Suddenly, the loud sound of a horn blew across the valley.

"What's that? Are they finally retiring?" another Shadowkhan said.

"No, that's not their signal to retreat, that means…"

Kyosuke didn't have the time to finish when two other Shadowkhan wizards revealed short swords hidden under their sleeves and cut their partners' throats, causing a chunk of the Shadowkhan army to vanish.

"What are you doing?" another Shadowkhan said before a shuriken to his head ended his life.

"ASSASSINS!" Kyosuke yelled as he unsheathed his katana.

The Shadowkhan began to flee. Unlike Kyosuke who was well versed in both fighting and magic, they were pure wizards, not trained in the art of combat, and were vulnerable to the ninjas. Kyosuke killed the shinobi fairly easily, and upon checking their corpses, he saw that they had painted their skin blue to blend with the other mages. How in the world could they be fooled by such an idiotic trick? Even if the ambushing ninjas were dead, Kyosuke's comrades didn't stop their retreat. They probably feared for more assassins hidden near them.

"No! Come back! Don't enter the battlefield! That's what he wants!"

Kyosuke felt that things were going to get worse, and he was right. He felt a wave of good chi coursing through the valley, causing the Shadowkhan to slowly vanish. He quickly spotted a group of men in robes, probably monks or priests, constantly singing holy chants that were amplified by huge metallic cones. This didn't look good for the Shadowkhan.

"Keep fighting! Tarakudo will come, sooner or later!" Kyosuke said as he joined the fight.

However, the battle was already lost. There was no sign of Tarakudo, their army of Shadowkhan was vastly reduced, and became smaller whenever a wizard was killed. If he summoned his Shadowkhan… no, that would change nothing. Besides, the chants of the monks had greatly weakened his magic power.

Then he saw it – Yoshinoya, fighting Shadowkhan while barking orders to his men. If he killed the enemy's hero, he would strike a crippling blow against them.

"SENSEI!" Kyosuke bellowed.

Yoshinoya turned around to see the angry face of his former apprentice. Even if he didn't say anything else, the challenge was clear.

Master and apprentice engaged in a duel. Kyosuke didn't use any of his remaining power, since he still felt that his master deserved to die honorably, not by some dirty magic trick. Kyosuke was confident in his skills, and besides, Yoshinoya was old and well past his prime. However, soon he found that his master didn't show any signs of fatigue. In fact, every second he seemed to grow more powerful. Kyosuke was beginning to doubt his chances of winning, and that was his doom, since his movements became slower and sloppier. With a swift move, Yoshinoya buried his katana into his apprentice's gut.

"I'm sorry, Kyosuke-kun. I didn't want it to end this way," Yoshinoya said with tears in his eyes.

The Shadowkhan witnessed Kyosuke being struck down by Yoshinoya, and panicked. They could only think of their own survival. In their disarray, they were easy prey to the blades of the samurai and ninjas. The battle was over; the Shadowkhan had been defeated.

"Sensei… you… you won," Kyosuke said from the ground.

"Yes, I did win. Yet victory has never tasted so sour before. Kyosuke, your betrayal… it saddened me beyond anything you can imagine. You had everything… you had such a promising future… yet you let the Shadowkhan to feed your ambition and poison your mind with their ideas… why did you do it, Kyosuke?"

"Sensei… kill me now… please… I deserve to die with honor…" Kyosuke pleaded.

Yoshinoya grabbed his katana, ready to strike his apprentice down, until a thought crossed his mind. Much to Kyosuke's surprise, he sheathed his katana.

"Kyosuke died a long time ago. The creature at my feet deserves no such honor. Even being devoured by the crows will be better than you deserve," Yoshinoya said in an angry tone as he left the battlefield.

"Sensei! SENSEI!" Kyosuke yelled with all his might.

_**Three hours later:**_

Twilight had fallen over the Kiso Valley, heralding the incoming night. Kyosuke was still lying on the ground, remembering how his master denied him an honorable death before being stripped of the Dark Treasures, and left him to die by his wounds.

"How could he? How could he do this to me!?" Was all that Kyosuke could think for the past hours, waiting for death to claim him.

He felt a pair of strong arms lifting him. However, he soon realized that they weren't spirits that were there to take him to the afterlife, but two demons, one with yellow skin and wings, and another one with a purple face, fangs, and horns.

"It's a miracle he's still alive," Kyosuke heard a voice saying.

"Don't underestimate the strength of the Shadowkhan, General Ikazuki. Despite this one being a failure beyond redemption, he's still a formidable warrior."

Kyosuke did recognize that voice.

"Tarakudo!" the Dark Champion said.

Floating in front of him was the head of a red skinned demon, grinning at the fallen Shadowkhan, as if enjoying his misery.

"Tarakudo… why did you abandon us? You… we could have won…"

"Let me think…" Tarakudo said as he pretended to be deep in thought, "Let me answer you with another question. Why did you expect me to show up?"

"Because… because we're allies… we made a deal…"

"Allies! Guess that changes everything. Thanks for reminding me. Now, since I didn't come to your rescue… what happened?"

"We… lost… we lost!" Kyosuke said in anger. What kind of game was this mad demon playing?

"That's right. You lost. Yet you had a power the enemy didn't have. You outnumbered them. They were at a clear disadvantage. Yet you lost to them. Why did you lose to them?" Tarakudo asked. But before Kyosuke could reply, he said, "Because you're weak. That's why you lost.

"You speak of deals and alliances, but what did you have to offer? You're not worthy of being our allies. You discovered a great power, but had no idea how to properly use it. You would be nothing but a burden for the forces of darkness. But don't worry – we will carry on. This world will be covered in Shadows."

"You… you… TRAITOR!" Kyosuke bellowed as a shockwave pushed the Oni holding him aside. The Dark Champion floated in front of Tarakudo, as a strong wind began to blow and his body crackled with purple sparks. The other Oni adopted fighting stances, but Tarakudo calmed them down.

"Don't be afraid, he can't hurt us. Despite this impressive demonstration, this 'Champion' is minutes away from being a corpse," Tarakudo calmly said.

And he was right. The outburst of anger and hate had briefly boosted his dark power, but whatever he did, he would instantly die afterwards. Kyosuke only saw a viable course of action.

"Do you think you can do this to me!? Stealing our power and then backstab me? No! This is not my end! My body may fail, but my spirit will live for revenge! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!"

Tarakudo and Kyosuke were both engulfed by a black tornado of dirt and sand. The Oni King tried to spot his former ally, but he was nowhere to be seen. He prepared himself for a possible attack, when he finally saw him.

A huge, black wraith with red eyes, staring into the eyes of the Oni King, as he said two words…

_Fear me…_

And for a fraction of a second, Tarakudo, Lord of All Oni and King of the Shadowkhan, felt terror inside him.

When the tornado dispelled, only Tarakudo remained. The ghost was gone.

"Master Tarakudo?" Ikazuki asked. "Are you… are you okay?"

"It was nothing. Come, we still have to fix the mess these idiots caused," Tarakudo said as he and his Generals left.

…

The next year, the war with the Shadowkhan would come to an end. The Imperial forces defeated the Oni, sealing them inside magic masks. Tarakudo managed to steal his mask before they could use it on him, and without time to properly destroy it, he hid it in the Shadow Realm, where no human would go. Ironically, this was his doom, as his enemies decided that, since Tarakudo was in the Shadow Realm, that would be his prison for all eternity.

The Sacred Treasures were successfully retrieved, but the monks and priests were unable to purify them. The corruption was deep. Since they didn't want to destroy them, three monks took one treasure each and hid them far away from Japan, until one day they could find a way to restore them. Meanwhile, the Emperor ordered three replicas of the treasures to be made, in order to make his people think that the gods hadn't abandoned him.

Unfortunately, the location of the corrupted treasures was lost over time, and the replicas were accepted as the real ones.

_**Hong Kong, China. Sometime in the XII century:**_

From the balcony of his palace, the Emperor watched as one of his most trusted Generals led an army against him. The Emperor's guards fell under the blades of the enemy army. He should have known that this would happen. When his General returned from an expedition to Japan wielding a power to summon an infinite army, he swore that he would only use that power to expand the Emperor's domain, not to usurp it. But the general was using the power of a demon, and demons cannot be trusted. He knew that better than anyone. Still, he wasn't worried. At all.

He returned to the throne room. Soon his General would break in and demand the Emperor to surrender. Time passed. And passed. And passed. Until it finally happened. The doors of the throne room were torn apart, as an army of ninjas rushed inside. Still, they didn't attack him; they merely secured the area until their master arrived. Once the ninjas decided that it was safe for him to come in, a man wearing classical Chinese armor. But it wasn't a normal man – his head was that of a demon, with red skin, horns, long fangs and a wild black mane.

"General Xiao," Shendu said, "Although I presume that Xiao isn't there anymore, is he?"

"You're correct, Shendu," the Oni said, "I've never understood your kind, trying to control and subjugate humans through fear and brute force, when manipulating the darkness of their hearts is so much easy and effective."

"Typical of an Oni. To rule through fear is a testament of power. But I never expected that your race of lesser demons would understand."

"Lesser? How dare you-"

"What do you want?" Shendu interrupted.

"It isn't obvious? Your kingdom. All of it. Your siblings were sealed long ago; only you remain free. You are nothing but a relic of an ancient time. The age of the Demon Sorcerers is over. It's time for a new evil to take the mantle."

"Funny you say that, lesser demon – isn't your kind sealed away as well?" Shendu retorted.

"Yes, but their liberation will be easy – just like I possessed this unfortunate human, so too can they gain new hosts. Now Shendu, don't make things more difficult than they have to be and-"

The Oni was interrupted when two heat beams pierced his body, killing him instantly, causing all the Shadowkhan to disappear. Shendu got up from his throne and walked towards the corpse of his former General. He noticed that there was a mask over his face. The Oni was obviously sealed inside that mask. Shendu picked the mask up, and gave it a closer look.

"Interesting," was all that the dragon said.

* * *

**Author's note: So here it is, the Phantom's origins. I'd like to credit the interludes detailing Tarakudo's backstory from the story Queen of All Oni, which were the inspiration for this chapter. I know this chapter was probably a bit weird to read, with so many original characters that won't appear again, as well as the abscence of Jade, Jackie, Tohru and the others. But don't worry, the next chapter will set the story back to its usual course.**

**Speaking of which, I'm afraid to announce that this was the last chapter I had already written, which means that I won't update once a week anymore, specially since I went back to college a couple weeks ago and I don't have as much spare time as during summer. Still, I'll try to finish the remaining three chapters as soon as possible.**

**So see you...whenever I finish the next chapter, that will be titled "The Dark Champion", because it will also focus on The Phantom as well. Meanwhile, don't forget to review!**


	12. The Dark Champion

**Chapter 12: The Dark Champion**

Daolon Wong was getting ready to leave his lair, as the Chans had found the location of the third and final Dark Treasure. Only one of the Treasures would give him a power boost strong enough to crush those Chans forever, but this was his last chance. There was no room for mistakes anymore. However, his plans were about to be derailed.

"Wong," The Phantom said as he appeared before him.

"Oh, look who's decided to come back! Where the Hell have you been all this time?" the dark wizard asked.

"I've been… busy," The Phantom said. Of course, Wong knew that he was hiding something, but there was no time to ask now. "Did you get the Sword of Kusanagi or either of the other Treasures?"

Wong growled at him. That was all that the Phantom needed to know.

"I see. Were you getting ready to go after the last Treasure?" the Phantom asked, though before Wong could answer, he continued speaking, "Forget about it then. If the Chans have two of the Treasures, then let them collect the last one."

"WHAT!? You can't be serious!"

"Have you ever seen me joking? Listen carefully Wong, this is what we're going to do now."

…

Meanwhile, in Nepal, the J-Team was on their way to collect the last of the Dark Treasures, the Jewel Yasakani no Magatama. Uncle's locator spell had brought them to a small valley between mountains in the Himalayas, where a small shrine was hidden. Long ago, monks had inhabited the shrine, but now it was devoid of any inhabitants, except, of course, magic-powered guardians, who kept intruders away from the temple.

"Bad day, bad day, bad day, bad day!" Jackie yelled as he dodged the attacks from the shrine guardians, several yeti as large as Tohru.

"Don't worry Jackie, I'll send you reinforcements!" Jade said, and commanded two Shadowkhan to assist her uncle.

"Some firepower would be of a lot of help, Viper!" Jackie said as he parried one of the yeti's blows with a large frozen branch he found half buried in the snow.

"Sorry, but Uncle borrowed the Dragon Talisman! Why the Hell does he want it now?!" Viper said, before a large, white furry arm struck her, hurling her backwards, "UGH!"

The yeti then turned his attention to Jade, breathed in, and tried to freeze Jade with its ice breath. One of the kunoichi jumped between her mistress and the snow beast, taking the attack. The kunoichi was instantly encased in a block of ice.

"Why is Uncle taking so long?!" Jade asked as she cast a dark chi blast against the yeti that had frozen one of her minions.

"Who knows? But he better finish before Wong shows up," Viper said, back on her feet again, fighting two yeti at the same time.

Meanwhile, inside the shrine, Uncle and Tohru were in the process of retrieving the Jewel. The Jewel was encased in a large block of ice. Normal fire didn't melt the ice, which led Uncle and Tohru to the conclusion that it was some kind of magic ice, and only magic fire could melt it, thus being forced to ask Viper for the Dragon Talisman. Still, it took them about ten minutes to melt all the ice.

"Alright, now pick the Jewel up and place it here," Uncle said as he pulled out a small ornamental box from his backpack.

His apprentice nodded, and used a long pincer to grab the Treasure (after what had happened to both Viper and Tohru when they touched a Treasure, they weren't going to take that risk again), and placed the Jewel inside the box, which was quickly closed and locked by the old chi wizard. Uncle and Tohru exited the shrine and saw Jackie, Jade and Viper fighting a large group of yeti.

"We're done here! Let's go!" Tohru called.

"What took you guys so long!?" Jackie said, right after round-housing a yeti.

"Uncle had to make sure the Jewel didn't corrupt anyone, and that was a hard job, unlike what you're doing!" the old chi wizard said.

"You call this – oh, never mind, let's just get out of here!" Jackie said as he and the others left the hidden shrine and its yeti guardians.

…

A couple of hours later, the J-Team was already on a plane back to San Francisco, with the Jewel in a safe place.

"So, that's the last one, right? I can't believe that we managed to grab this one without any kind of major incident, barring the fight with the yetis," Jade said.

"Yes, Wong will never get his hands on this Treasure, ever," Jackie said.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. Wong won't give up so easily. Speaking of which, it's a bit weird that he didn't show up to claim the Treasure."

"Maybe he's waiting for all of the Treasures to be in one place to steal them all in one go," Tohru suggested.

"Well, we will be waiting for him. And thanks to Viper, we now have a way to take the Ring from him," Jackie said, smiling at Viper, though Viper only looked back at him with a sour expression.

_Flashback – A couple of days ago_

_"I didn't sign up for this," Viper complained._

_The former thief was sitting at a desk, with Solomon's Archive opened on a base, and a laptop in front of her._

_"Come on Viper, you're the only one of us who knows Hebrew, and that means only you can translate this book for Uncle," Jackie said, "Besides, I thought you wanted to help Jade."_

_"I do, that's why I'm doing this even if it's so utterly boring. Do you do this too?"_

_"Yeah, pretty often. Sometimes they bring in ancient texts and I'm usually the one who has to translate them."_

"_If this was _my_ job, I'd blow my brains out. How can you stand it?"_

_"I find it entertaining. You start uncovering a mystery little by little until you have the whole picture. It's almost like doing a puzzle."_

_"Always so fascinating, babyface," Viper said, rolling her eyes, "I better get something big in return for doing this."_

_"What? I thought you said you wanted to do this to help Jade?"_

_"Anything for that girl, but translating ancient texts wasn't what I had in mind. Plus, this is _ancient_ Hebrew, which isn't quite the same as the Hebrew I speak."_

_"Fine. What do you want?" Jackie asked in defeat, fearing what the thief may ask._

_"When we're done with this and Jade's back to normal, I want you to take me to the most expensive restaurant of San Francisco for a dinner, you and me."_

_"What!?"_

_"Don't worry Jackie, I'll make the night worth the money you're going to spend," Viper said as she winked at him._

_End Flashback_

Back in Section 13, Uncle carefully placed the Jewel in a special glass case, along with the Sword and the Mirror. Uncle and Tohru had placed multiple wards in the case so the Treasures' influence wouldn't corrupt anyone else.

"Well, now to wait for Wong to come get them," Jackie said, arms crossed, "Because let's face it, he _will_ come."

"If Wong dares to come here, we will take the Ring from him. I finally have a spell that will detach the Ring from his finger," Uncle said.

**"**Maybe he isn't the one who will come to get the Treasures," a new voice said.

Everybody gasped and stepped back as they saw the Phantom appearing before them.

"AIYAAAAAAAAAAAHH! How could the Phantom enter here? Uncle placed many protective wards!" the old chi wizard yelled.

"Maybe you did, but the combined power of the three Dark Treasures is more than enough to overcome your pathetic magic, wizard!" the Phantom shouted at him, "I was hoping that you would be stupid enough to store all the Treasures in the same place. Did any of you think about why they were scattered in the first place?"

"So what? You're still a ghost. You can't just pick them up and take them away," Viper said. Then she grew unsure, and added, "Right?"

"Not in this form, but that will change soon!"

The three Dark Treasures began to glow with a purple, eerie light. The glass case shattered into a million pieces, and the three dark artifacts began to spin around the Phantom in circles.

"Oh, I've been waiting so many centuries for this moment!" The Phantom said before a glowing purple ball of energy engulfed him and the Treasures.

The energy ball glowed brighter, blinding the five heroes. When the light was finally gone, the Phantom was no longer there. In his place there was a Shadowkhan, resembling the Ninja Tribe, but without the mask, and wearing some pieces of metallic armor on his shoulders, chest, and forearms. Long white hair fell down his back, tied in a ponytail in a way that resembled Valmont, and his face would have been deemed handsome if it wasn't for the red eyes. And of course, everyone noticed the Sword of Kusanagi in his right hand, the Mirror attached to his belt, and the Jewel around his neck.

"The Phantom is no more. Behold the return of Kyosuke, the Dark Champion!"

"Behold THIS!" Tohru said as he shot a chi blast at the Dark Champion.

Fast as lightning, the sentient Shadowkhan parried the beam with the Kusanagi's blade. Uncle emulated his apprentice and shot another blast of his own, but the result was the same. Viper joined them by casting a stream of Dragon fire, but the Dark Champion dodged it as well. However, this gave Jackie a perfect opening for a direct kick that hurled the Champion backwards.

"Everyone out, now!" Jackie shouted as everyone quickly exited the Vault.

Before the Dark Champion could escape, Jackie slammed the Vault's blast door, trapping the sentient Shadowkhan inside.

"These mere walls won't stop me Chan, and you know it," The Dark Champion said, followed by a brief laugh.

…

Moments later, the J-Team met with Captain Black, and told him what had happened. Black led them to a security room, and witnessed the Dark Champion inside the Vault through a security camera. The Dark Champion was sitting in the middle of the room in the lotus position, as if he were meditating. This did nothing but fill the heroes' minds with doubt.

"So, what is he doing?" Jackie asked, confused at what he was seeing.

"Yeah, I thought that he'd escape via shadow travel," Jade mused, "Or he'd summon Shadowkhan, you know."

"Uncle, what's your opinion?" Captain Black asked the only man he thought might have any idea what was happening.

"Hmm… if the Shadowkhan hasn't escaped yet, it's either because he can't escape and is waiting for an opportunity, or he wants to be here for some reason," the old man deduced.

"So, what do we do? Do we go in after him? If he can't escape, then this is our chance to get him," Tohru interjected.

"Do not rush into action, my apprentice. I can tell that this Shadowkhan is devious like no other of his kind. If we don't act wisely, it could be our downfall. We all saw the power of the Dark Treasures, and he has all three. Additionally, we still don't know what the Jewel does."

"But if we don't act quickly, we're giving him time to prepare his next move," Viper said.

Captain Black began to ponder what to do based on the J-Team's suggestions. In a few seconds he knew what to do.

"Alright, this is what we're going to do. Uncle, Tohru, try to find a way to defeat this freak for good. Jackie told me that you've dealt with those magic artifacts before, so it shouldn't be too hard. Meanwhile, I'll send a squad of agents to watch the Vault and instruct the rest of the agents within the building to be prepared to deal with almost anything," Black said, before leaving.

Uncle and Tohru also left, to prepare a way to counter the combined power of the three Dark Treasures. Jackie, Jade, and Viper remained in the room, watching their prisoner.

"Jackie, what do you think?" Viper asked.

"I'm afraid that Uncle is right. We cannot simply go and fight him directly. With the three Dark Treasures together…" Jackie said.

"Then why isn't he wreaking havoc on Section 13? If he's that powerful, what is he waiting for?" Jade asked.

"Maybe he's waiting for the right moment to strike. That's why I said that we should take care of him as quickly as possible before he does," Viper said, "Plus, remember that this guy was an ally of Wong's. We shouldn't forget that."

"Ugh, I totally forgot about him… as if Wong wasn't enough, now we have to deal with this guy… bad day," Jackie said, "Let's just hope that Captain Black and Uncle can find a solution before it's too late."

…

Meanwhile, inside Section 13's vault, the Dark Champion was slowly recharging his power. He had drained the Dark Treasures almost completely in order to resurrect himself, and his newly revived being was too weak to engage in a direct fight or to survive shadow travel. Fortunately, he wouldn't have to wait for long until Wong came to pick him up. Or at least, that was what he hoped.

The Chans hadn't attacked him since locking him in. They probably thought that he was too powerful, with the three Dark Treasures in his possession, when in fact he wouldn't be able to offer any resistance. While this part of his plan relied on luck, he had anticipated that this would happen. Now he had to focus on regenerating his power in order to summon Shadowkhan. Yes, once he had access to his minions, he could unleash chaos upon Section 13.

Being alone and unmolested gave Kyosuke some time to reflect on his past life. Would it have changed anything if he hadn't allied himself with Tarakudo? The Oni King certainly turned the tide of the war in their favor, since his Generals were quite skilled commanding the Shadowkhan. But in the end, he ended up losing as well. Maybe if he hadn't betrayed Kyosuke, together they would have conquered Japan, and then the rest of the world.

Speaking of which, he still didn't understand why Tarakudo had betrayed him. It couldn't be for mere power, since Kyosuke handed him the Forge of Shadows as part of their alliance agreement. Maybe because he was an Oni, and Kyosuke was a former human? Who knew, but that was the past, even if Yoshinoya always said that it's important not to forget about the past in order to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

That didn't matter. Kyosuke now had his hopes on Daolon Wong. The dark wizard reminded Kyosuke of Hanji the Soul Harvester, the Shadowkhan wizard who had taught him how to harness and use Shadowkhan magic. Both Wong and Hanji were no nonsense sorcerers with absolutely no qualms about what they had to do to achieve their goals. He had other potential allies in mind, but as long as Wong met his expectations, he'd stick with him.

Kyosuke felt that he had already gathered enough power to make his next move until Wong came for him. He stood up from his meditating position, and looked upwards towards one of the cameras overlooking the Vault.

"Chan, are you there? Do you hear me? I'm sure you do. You've probably been bored this past hour, with me doing nothing but sitting here, wondering if I'm as vulnerable as I look or if I was hoping for you to show up and fall into a trap. Well, none of that matters anyway…"

…

"… All what matters is now. And now I'm going to turn this place upside down."

Jackie, Jade and Viper had listened to the Dark Champion's short speech, and were now more worried than ever.

"He's going to turn Section 13 upside down? I don't like the sound of that," Jade said.

"We'll have to warn Uncle and Tohru. Whatever he's planning to do, we mustn't let him," Jackie said with determination as he began to leave the security room.

"Jackie… you better take a look at this," Viper said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

The Dark Champion's shadow began to expand, generating multiple pools of darkness around him. And from each pool, a Shadowkhan emerged. While it wasn't any kind of Shadowkhan they had fought before, it was something they had _seen_ before.

"Well, it shouldn't be that surprising," Jade said, upon seeing the kind of Shadowkhan the Dark Champion had summoned.

"Ghosts… this guy's Shadowkhan are ghosts…" Jackie said as he pulled out his cell phone.

"Who you gonna call?" Jade asked.

"Captain Black. He and his men must get ready. I don't know what these Ghost Khan can do, but I'm sure it won't be pretty."

…

"Jackie? Yeah, don't worry, all my men are on alert, and I have a special squad watching the Vault and… what do you mean by ghosts? The guy in the vault is summoning ghosts?" Captain Black asked. Suddenly, he grew silent when he saw a trio of black wraiths with red eyes emerging from the wall and flying towards him and a group of agents besides him.

"Gotta go, your ghosts are already here. Go and see if Uncle has anything useful," Black said as he placed his cell phone back in his pocket and cocked his gun, "Everybody, open fire!"

Black and his five agents fired upon the trio of ghosts, but the Shadowkhan were unharmed. The bullets didn't even open holes on them. Both Black and his agents were horrified upon realizing this.

"Yeah, they're ghosts, they're intangible," Black said.

"Well, if they're intangible, they can't harm us either, right?" a blond female agent asked.

The wraiths flew around them in circles, and all of sudden jumped into three of the agents (Black was lucky not to be among them). The possessed agents fell to the floor, yelling while holding their heads with both hands. Seconds later, they stopped screaming, and stood up again. However, their skin was blue, and their eyes were red.

"Yeah, they're ghosts, they can possess people," Black said, even more horrified than before.

…

Jackie, Jade, and Viper followed Captain Black's instructions and went to look for Uncle and Tohru before the ensuing madness that was going on would get even more out of hand that it already was. They were greeted by the image of multiple Section 13 agents fighting their fellows, except that half of them had blue skin and red eyes, like the Shadowkhan.

"What's going on? Where did these Shadowkhan come from?" Viper asked, a bit confused, looking around.

She got the answer when she saw a Ghost Khan possessing and transforming another Section 13 agent.

"Bad day," Jackie said.

"Worst day," Jade added, before turning into a Shadowkhan as well.

"Come on, we have to find Uncle!" she said as she dragged the slightly astonished adults behind her.

But finding Uncle and Tohru was easier said than done, as several possessed agents noticed the trio and moved to intercept them. One jumped in front of them, a second behind them, while a third crawled towards them down the wall on all fours in a way that no normal human could. Archeologist, child, and ex-thief adopted battle stances.

"Try not to harm them, they're innocent people," Jackie warned as he dodged the punch of a possessed agent.

"Too bad that they don't have the same moral issue!" Viper said as she tossed another attacking agent against a wall.

"We can't let these guys stop us! I'll go and find Uncle!" Jade said, before blasting the third agent with a dark chi beam.

"No way you're going alone!" Jackie shouted, "That's crazy Jade, you're crazy!"

"But Jackie, my Shadowkhan can take me to Uncle in a second!" Jade protested.

"She has a point," Viper said, while parrying an incoming kick.

"I hope I don't regret this. Okay then, go!"

Jade nodded, and summoned five Kunoichi Khan. One of them took Jade away via shadow travel, while the other four stayed for the fight.

Jackie and Viper continued the fight against the possessed agents. Their fast and jerky movements, the way they could bend beyond normal limits, and their superhuman strength and agility creeped them out even more than the unnatural eye and skin color. Even with the Ox Talisman, the former thief still was having a lot of trouble with the Shadowkhan agents, who were insanely fast and recovered from the blows she delivered rather quickly. Jackie wasn't doing much better, mostly tossing his foes back via punches or flying kicks rather than disabling them permanently. And Jade's kunoichi were in the same predicament, barely holding the monstrous agents back.

In the middle of the fight, they saw the Dark Champion running through the larger battle. Jackie and Viper both deduced that the battle was a mere distraction for him to get away.

"He's going to escape! Jackie, stop him!" Viper shouted.

"He's too far away, I don't think I can get him!" Jackie replied as he pushed a possessed agent back.

"You will if I give you a push!" Viper said, taking a few steps away from Jackie.

Jackie took a run up, dashed towards Viper, and jumped. Viper caught Jackie's feet in mid air, and pushed him towards the Dark Champion, sending the archeologist flying like a rocket. Jackie managed to maintain his balance during his flight, and delivered a powerful flying kick to the Dark Champion's head upon landing.

"I knew this wouldn't be this easy," the Dark Champion said as he stood up while rubbing his head, "But at the same time, I'd be disappointed if I left without the chance at fighting you in a duel. That's why I told my Shadowkhan to spare you."

"You're going to pay for all that you've done, monster," Jackie said in a stern tone as he adopted a fighting stance.

"You already saw the power of a single Dark Treasure, and I have all three of them. Do you really think you stand a chance against me?"

"If you could finish us off for good, you wouldn't be trying to escape."

"Ah, good point," Kyosuke admitted. He then adopted a fighting stance as well and said, "But I have enough power to finish _you_ off!"

Jackie and the Dark Champion engaged in a fight. The Dark Champion's attacks consisted mainly of diagonal slashes and direct stabs, forcing the unarmed Jackie to fight defensively and only counterattack when he could see an opening. However, he found that the Dark Champion's blows were slower and sloppier than he had anticipated from a Higher Shadowkhan, and it took no time for Jackie to grab the Shadowkhan's wrist when he tried to stab him, and knock the Sword of Kusanagi out of his hand with a swift kick. The Dark Champion managed to break Jackie's hold and push him back, and then cast his hands towards the sword on the ground, and it magically flew back to him.

"Surprised?" the Dark Champion asked.

"Not really. You're not the first one I've see do that," Jackie said with a shrug.

"Then how about this?" The Dark Champion asked as he stabbed his sword into the floor.

Fortunately for Jackie, he had seen that before too. Fast as lightning, he jumped against a nearby wall, narrowly dodging the underground shockwave that cracked the floor, and sprung off towards the Dark Champion as he delivered another flying kick, this time to the Shadowkhan's face.

"Ugh. Your reputation certainly isn't undeserved," the Dark Champion said as he stood up.

"As I said before, you're not going to leave," Jackie declared as sternly as before.

"Doesn't matter. There's no glory in victory without fighting against a worthy adversary. But worthy does not equal superior, much less unbeatable. Your defeat will only make my victory greater."

"You talk too much!" Jackie said as he dashed forwards and delivered a rain of punches and chops.

Now, it was the Dark Champion who fought defensively, blocking and dodging Jackie's quick punches and kicks. Unfortunately for Jackie, when one of his punches missed, he gave his opponent a perfect opening for a counterattack, and the Dark Champion knocked him down with a low kick, and losing no time he tried to bury his blade in Jackie's chest. However, Jackie managed to grab the blade with his bare hands before it could touch his body. The blade was burning hot, scalding Jackie's hands with searing pain, and he quickly pushed the sword away while he rolled in the opposite direction. The wounds on Jackie's hands activated the Horse Talisman and healed them in an instant.

"I see that you're not above using magic after all," the Dark Champion said, "But that mere trinket is nothing compared to the power of the Shadowkhan!"

The Dark Champion was surrounded by a purple glowing aura as his body began to crackle with purple electric sparks. He hoped that he wouldn't be forced to use up the little energy he had managed to gather before, but Jackie Chan was much more skilled in hand to hand combat than him in his current state, and thus it was his only means of winning.

"Let's make a deal, Chan," Kyosuke said as he raised his sword above his head, which was also glowing and crackling with electricity, "If you can survive this, then I'll surrender to you!"

The Dark Champion looked sure about the destructive power of his next attack, which made Jackie really worried. Nervously, he looked around, trying to find something he could use as either a shield or a hiding place, with no luck.

However, Jackie Chan wouldn't see his end that day, as a huge fireball hit the Dark Champion in the back, hurling him against a nearby wall, and Jackie threw himself to the floor. He lifted his head and saw Viper, with one of her hands cast forwards.

"Sorry to interrupt your fun babyface, but you still owe me that dinner and if you died… well, that would be inconvenient," Viper casually said as she smiled.

"Man, that was a pretty close call. A few seconds later and…"

"You know, it's not wise to interfere in a fight until it's really necessary," Viper commented as she helped Jackie to stand up, "So, is this guy as tough as he looks?"

"Yes. Probably even more so," Jackie said.

He turned his head at the Dark Champion, who was on his feet already. He cast Viper a spiteful look.

"Get lost woman, this is a one on one fight!" he shouted.

"Well, it's a two on one now," Viper replied, "Sorry, but I used to be a thief and playing dirty is my specialty."

"Oh, you're not the only one who can play dirty."

Unbeknown to Viper, her shadow started to grow, and from it a Ghost Khan emerged. The thief heard something behind her and turned back, but she had no time to react before the Ghost Khan possessed her.

"Viper!" Jackie shouted, seeing the thief falling to the floor and screaming.

"Goodbye, Chan. It's a pity that we couldn't end our duel, warriors like you only appear once in a generation," the Dark Champion said as he walked away.

Jackie was about to chase him, but something grabbed him by the wrist. It was Viper's hand, except that it was blue, just like the rest of her skin. Jackie also saw that her eyes were red, and when she snarled at him in a very threatening way, he saw that her teeth were pointed. The possessed thief then lifted Jackie overhead and slammed him against the floor. Fortunately, thanks to the Horse Talisman, he wasn't wounded.

"Viper, stop!" Jackie pleaded as he stood up, "Ugh, I can't believe this is happening again!"

…

After much searching, Jade finally found the room where Uncle and Tohru were working. It was so deep into the building that the two chi wizards were completely oblivious to the chaos that was going on.

"AIYAAAAAAAAHH! What happened here!? Uncle leaves for a couple of hours and the end of the world happens!" the old man yelled upon seeing the battle.

"What happened to these people?" Tohru asked, in a calmer (if only by a little) tone.

"That Dark Champion guy summoned a bunch of Shadowkhan which are ghosts like he used to be and possessed half of the agents, who are now trying to kill the other half!" Jade said as quickly as possible, "Can you exercise them?"

"Ex_or_cise," Tohru corrected, "And yes, I believe we can do that."

"Well, you should start now!" Jade said as she pointed to a bunch of possessed agents rushed towards them, some even running on all fours.

Uncle and Tohru pointed their chi blasters at the Shadowkhan agents, and began to recite their usual incantation while hopping on one leg. The possessed agents immediately stopped and held their heads in pain as if the two wizards' incantation harmed them. Finally, the Shadowkhan ghosts were expelled from their bodies, releasing spine-chilling screams, and disappeared.

"Good one! Now you only need to do that a hundred more times," Jade said. However, something caught her eye – her uncle Jackie fighting against a Shadowkhan that looked like Viper, which she quickly realized _was_ Viper.

"Uncle, look! Over there! You have to help Jackie! Tohru, take care of the others!" Jade said as she dragged Uncle towards the fight between Jackie and Viper.

Said fight turned out to be very one sided for a couple of reasons, such as the fact that Jackie didn't want to fight Viper (again) and that all the might of the Ox Talisman combined with the physical enhancements that came with her transformation made her a deadly foe. Every time Jackie dodged a punch or a kick, it left a hole in a wall or the floor.

"Viper, stop!" Jackie said as he grabbed her in a bear hug, pinning her arms against her body.

However, said move was useless as the thief's strength was much greater, and quickly broke the hold and pushed Jackie backwards. But before she could strike Jackie, Jade hit her with a diving kick.

"Jade! Get away from here! This is dangerous!"

"Grateful as ever…" Jade said with a scoff, "Maybe I should have left you there so Viper could make chopped liver out of you!"

"Jackie, keep thief busy while Uncle exorcises her!" Uncle shouted.

"Alright, but hurry up!" Jackie said, as he got ready to fight the crazed thief.

Jackie and Jade had to fight for several more minutes (that felt like an eternity) against the insanely strong thief, until Uncle finally purified the woman from the influence of the Shadowkhan.

"Viper! Are you okay?" Jade quickly asked once she was back to normal.

"Yeah… I think," Viper said in a whisper as she rubbed her head, "I never thought I'd have to go through that horrible experience again. Did I hurt any of you?"

"Fortunately not," Jackie said in a reassuring tone.

"Jackie! Where is that Shadowkhan?" Uncle inquired.

"The Dark Champion!" Jackie said in realization as he slapped his forehead, "After one of his minions possessed Viper, he ran away."

"Then he's already gone," Viper said, defeated.

"Hopefully not. Section 13 is a maze for somebody who has never been here, so maybe he hasn't found the exit yet. Uncle, take care of Viper and Jade, I'll go and get him."

"Jackie… where _is_ Jade?" Uncle asked.

Jackie looked around and saw that his niece was gone.

"Please, don't tell me that she went to face that guy on her own."

…

The Dark Champion was running without any kind of direction, just checking doors and hallways until he finally found the exit.

He had already foreseen that finding the exit wouldn't be a walk in the park, but he had expected that there would be some kind of sign that would lead to it. Plus, most hallways and rooms looked exactly the same, which made it much harder to orient. However, he wouldn't have to worry about any Section 13 agent trying to stop him, since he ordered his Shadowkhan not to let them move from where they were. And Jackie Chan wouldn't be a problem either.

But somebody else would be.

"Damn it, this place is a freaking maze!" the Dark Champion said in frustration.

"Oh, it's not that bad. Once you get to know this place, it's less maze-y than you think," a female voice said.

The Dark Champion turned around to see Jade, with her hands on her hips and a smile of superiority in her face.

"Ah, Jade the rogue Shadowkhan. Let me guess, you plan to thwart my escape, right?"

"Oh, I plan to do more than that," Jade replied cockily.

"I've seen you in action, and I admit that you have potential. However, Shadowkhan or not, a mere child with no training cannot hope to defeat me."

"You're not the first one to underestimate me for my size and age. And you won't be the first one who learns how much of a bad idea it is to do that," Jade said as she crackled her knuckles.

"Unfortunately for you, you just offered yourself to be another diversion while I get out of here," the Dark Champion said.

Jade saw in shock how a Ghost Khan emerged from her shadow and tried to possess her… "try" being the key word, since there was some kind of unseen force that kept pushing it back.

"Ha! I was counting on that. Your ghosts can only possess humans, not other Shadowkhan."

"Now that you mention it, yes, I should have seen that coming," he said, before drawing his sword, "Guess that I have no other choice but fight. You know, this saddens me a bit. We're both Shadowkhan, we shouldn't fight each other."

"Surrender then," Jade said with a shrug.

"Shadowkhan never surrender either."

"Then you should know that you're not going to leave this place as long as I'm breathing!" Jade said as she shot herself forward like a rocket.

"Don't worry, that can be fixed!" the Dark Champion said as he prepared to block and counter Jade's reckless charge.

However, a pair of thin arms held him tightly by the shoulders, and he realized that Jade had also used his own shadow to summon two of her Kunoichi Khan behind him. Unable to move, he couldn't dodge Jade's surprisingly strong punch. And then, the kunoichi kicked both his legs, making him fall, and they pinned him by the shoulders against the floor. Jade jumped above him, and landed with both feet on the Dark Champion's stomach.

"AGH! You're going to pay for that!" he yelled.

Powered by the rage born of the humiliation of being beaten by a little girl, he managed to break free from the kunoichi's hold, and with a couple of back flips he put some distance between Jade and himself. He then extended one arm, and summoned a large ball of black and purple fire, before quickly moving said arm forward, shooting the ball directly at Jade. However, thanks to her small size and agility, Jade dodged the attack easily.

**"**Ha! You missed, moron!"

"You think so?" the Dark Champion replied with a smirk.

With a bad feeling, Jade turned around to see the purple fireball moving back at her again as if it was a heat seeker missile, hitting her and knocking her down.

"See? You're nothing special! And now for the killing blow!"

The Dark Champion leapt into the air, ready to stab Jade upon landing, but even though he had struck her down, her two Shadowkhan were still there and lost no time to intercept the would-be killer of their mistress. They both jumped and swung the weight of one of the ends of their kusarigamas at the Dark Champion, who gracefully dodged them and in two swift slashing motions destroyed the kunoichi. However, he was unable to reach Jade, who took the opportunity to summon a whole squad of five kunoichi.

"It seems that five is your limit, right? Maybe you're not as talented as I expected," the Dark Champion said in a mocking tone.

"They're more than enough to help me kick your ass. And it still gives me the numbers advantage, since your Shadowkhan are useless against me."

"Or maybe you're restraining yourself, fearing that your power may corrupt you? Yes, it has to be that. There's no other explanation as for why you're still sticking with those people. Anyway, you still have no chance to defeat me."

"We'll see about that! Attack!" Jade commanded, and the five kunoichi dashed at the Dark Champion.

Kyosuke, for his part, returned his sword to its sheath, extended his arms forward, and closed his eyes. And much to Jade's shock, the kunoichi suddenly stopped their advance and turned back at her.

"What are you doing? I said after him!"

Much to Jade's horror, the five kunoichi attacked her instead. Jade tried to defend herself, but thanks to being outnumbered, combined with the shock of the moment, she was quickly overwhelmed and immobilized.

"What are you doing, you traitors?! Release me!"

"When I said that you had no chance of defeating me, this is what I was talking about. Even with my power weakened, my experience and knowledge still give me the advantage. Now-" he was interrupted by hearing a whistle, "Oh, now what?"

He turned to see where the whistle was coming from, and much to his horror saw a small missile flying towards him. He didn't even have the time to utter a profanity before the missile hit him, and the ensuing explosion engulfed him. The blast pushed Jade and her kunoichi back. When the smoke of the explosion began to clear, Jade looked for her mysterious savior, and soon she saw Captain Black, holding a rocket launcher.

"I know Uncle always says that magic must defeat magic but… I kind of disagree," Black said with a smirk of satisfaction, "Are you okay, Jade?"

"Yeah, thanks for the help," Jade said as she stood up and brushed the dust out of her clothes. Then she turned to her kunoichi (which apparently were free of the Dark Champion's control again) and with her face torn by fury she yelled, "AND YOU! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!? DON'T TELL ME THAT JACKIE WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU ALL ALONG!"

However, the kunoichi remained silent, as was to be expected. Suddenly, something in the crater left by the rocket launcher began to move.

"Uuuuggghhh…" the Dark Champion said as he badly tried to stand up. The explosion left all his clothes and armor completely ragged and burned, and his skin also burned and full of bruises and wounds, "You… will… pay for that!"

"Whoa, Nelly! He's still alive!" Black said in shock, "A man who can survive an RPG-7 to the face certainly has my respect."

"We can't let him recover! Come on, go!" Jade urged.

Then, a cloud of blue smoke appeared in front of Jade and Black, and from the cloud appeared Daolon Wong. With a wave of his hand, he telekinetically pushed the child and the tall man back against a wall. Then he turned to the Dark Champion.

"You look horrible," Wong said with a smirk.

"You took your sweet time," the Dark Champion said sourly, "What gives?"

"I had some unfinished business to attend to," the dark chi wizard said.

"Pffft… like that's… true. Come on, get me out of here, if you… want to see the Forge of Shadows."

Wong frowned, and both he and his ally disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

…

The battle was over, but this was bad news for the heroes. The Phantom somehow had used the Dark Treasures to revive himself, and Wong took him out of Section 13. Fortunately, none of the Section 13 agents died that day, since Black was cautious enough to ban the use of lethal force against the possessed ones, and many of them were incapacitated via tazer or other non-lethal methods. At some point, all the possessed agents returned to normal all of sudden, which coincidentally was the same moment Black nailed the Dark Champion with a rocket launcher.

Still, the J-Team was now in a very precarious situation – Wong had the three Dark Treasures and a powerful ally, plus the blue skin on Jade kept spreading. Everybody knew that they would only have one more chance to stop Wong and restore Jade to normal, but after the outcome of today's battle, the odds of succeeding were even smaller than ever.

* * *

**Author's Note: Mondays do indeed suck, right? Well, I hope that this chapter made your monday better, if only a little. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much I as I did writing it. And next chapter (which I don't know when it will be up but I'll try to finish it as soon as possible) we reach the climatic confrontation between the heroes and Wong and the Dark Champion, which will be the most eventful chapter of the story so far, with lots action, revelations and a surprise I'm sure you will like.**

**In the meantime, don't forget to review with your thoughts on this chapter, as well as what do you expect to happen next!**


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